The media has given widespread coverage to a new vaccine called Gardasil. This vaccine is intended to prevent 2 types of the HPV virus that are suspected of causing 70% of cervical cancer cases. Among the 30 known types of HPV virus, at least two other types are known to cause cervical cancer. Gardasil does nothing to prevent these HPV infections so the cervical cancer risk remains. Since the effectiveness of Gardasil is questionable, parents should strongly oppose attempts to make this vaccine mandatory for 11 and 12 year old children.

Do these facts about Gardasil justify calling it a vaccine against cervical cancer? Before you answer that, let me point out that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) still calls for women who have been vaccinated with Gardasil to get regular Pap tests. CDC literature states, “About 30% of cervical cancers will not be prevented by the vaccine, so it will be important for women to continue getting screened for cervical cancer (regular Pap tests).”

Isn’t that sufficient evidence to establish as false advertising the claims that Gardasil is a vaccine against cervical cancer? The CDC also notes that Gardasil will not prevent other sexually transmitted diseases, of which there are at least 45. How much protection is really achieved through this vaccination?

Father Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, sums up the problem this way: “The most wretched hypocrisy of the promoters of this vaccine, however, is that, rather than calling it a vaccine against a couple strains of one of the dozens of sexually transmitted diseases, they are calling it a vaccine against cervical cancer. Well, it will certainly protect some women from cervical cancer in the future but that’s not the point. The point is that there are overwhelming numbers of diseases, strains and even cancers that this vaccine does not protect from, all of which are gotten by the very same sexual act. Thinking that this vaccine gives blanket protection against cervical cancer (which of course is how it’s perceived because that is how it’s being promoted) is like believing that thirty people jumping out of the same airplane will all be protected because one of them is wearing a parachute.”

Fr. Euteneuer summarizes his point by noting, “This HPV vaccine, my friends, is a classic case of the culture of death playing fast and loose with people’s lives. They use junk science to hook our terribly un-reflective culture on a promise that will benefit only a miniscule portion of the population, and then the false perception of security surrounding their newest ruse hooks everyone else into behaviors and lifestyles that perpetuate the damage and decay our decency.”