focus on the fallacy
Take a short read, if you will, about cervical cancer. Then maybe read a little about HPV, one of the main causes and prerequisites to development of cervical cancer.
Now, a drug which supposedly has an almost 100% rate of prevention of cervical cancer * (if one has not been infected with HPV) is on the verge of being approved by the FDA. There's been talk of making it available to 10-11 year olds in school, when the vaccine is most effective - before these children grow up and start having sex.
With me so far?
I mean, if you're anything like me, you're thinking, great. Don't see anything wrong with that. One more jab for kids to take. It builds character. While also PREVENTING CANCER. A very, very common cancer. Which kills a lot of women. Is there even a question about the wisdom of this?
Apparently so. Because Focus on the Family [insert hack-spit here] has spoken out against it, as they will. The word "sex" was mentioned, and even though this really has only the most tenuous of connections to actual sexual intercourse, it was enough to trigger their state-of-the-art "Society As We Know It Is About To End... Again" alarm.
Get this: this drug, which - let's recap for the slower ones - has a really high rate of preventing the second most common cancer in women, and needs to be administered before the virus is present within the body, will promote premarital sex and promiscuity to children.
No, seriously.
No, seriously. This drug will supposedly send the message that sex is now okay and fun and perfectly safe if administered, because... a horrible cancer is otherwise always foremost on your mind when you are deciding whether to have sex or not? Because despite the education and values imparted to you by your parents, a jab that will lower your chance of developing a cancer that will only occur after you have sex will somehow translate to an all-access pass to your vagina? I don't know. I really don't.
The lesser message here, of course, is that a premarital sex-having person developing a horrible killing cancer is somehow preferable to the remote and frankly ridiculous idea that 10 year olds will leave the school clinic thinking that sex is now on the menu. I remember after I got my tetanus shot, I went and stabbed myself with a whole bunch of rusty blades, just because I could!
Of course, this is the same organisation that constantly tries to pass itself off as the supreme moral authority for the family, all the while spouting twisted nonsense disguised as science. This is the same organisation that tells people that "psychiatrists" and "science" have shown that people don't have to be gay. This is the same organisation that tries to pass off its intensely religious stance as common sense. The same organisation that is actively pro-censorship, anti-evolution and anti-divorce. Why should I even be surprised?
As a side note, I want to punch my fucking radio in every time that smug bastard "Dr." Dobson comes on 90.5. I don't see how he's even allowed on our bullshit secular airwaves. Just because he pretends that his entire ultra-conservative Christian stance isn't motivated by religion, but for the good of the family. Oh, go burn some books and witches already.
* The original sentence read, "...a 70% rate of prevention of cervical cancer". Read more about the issue in this news article, here and in the comments.
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Now, a drug which supposedly has an almost 100% rate of prevention of cervical cancer * (if one has not been infected with HPV) is on the verge of being approved by the FDA. There's been talk of making it available to 10-11 year olds in school, when the vaccine is most effective - before these children grow up and start having sex.
With me so far?
I mean, if you're anything like me, you're thinking, great. Don't see anything wrong with that. One more jab for kids to take. It builds character. While also PREVENTING CANCER. A very, very common cancer. Which kills a lot of women. Is there even a question about the wisdom of this?
Apparently so. Because Focus on the Family [insert hack-spit here] has spoken out against it, as they will. The word "sex" was mentioned, and even though this really has only the most tenuous of connections to actual sexual intercourse, it was enough to trigger their state-of-the-art "Society As We Know It Is About To End... Again" alarm.
Get this: this drug, which - let's recap for the slower ones - has a really high rate of preventing the second most common cancer in women, and needs to be administered before the virus is present within the body, will promote premarital sex and promiscuity to children.
No, seriously.
No, seriously. This drug will supposedly send the message that sex is now okay and fun and perfectly safe if administered, because... a horrible cancer is otherwise always foremost on your mind when you are deciding whether to have sex or not? Because despite the education and values imparted to you by your parents, a jab that will lower your chance of developing a cancer that will only occur after you have sex will somehow translate to an all-access pass to your vagina? I don't know. I really don't.
The lesser message here, of course, is that a premarital sex-having person developing a horrible killing cancer is somehow preferable to the remote and frankly ridiculous idea that 10 year olds will leave the school clinic thinking that sex is now on the menu. I remember after I got my tetanus shot, I went and stabbed myself with a whole bunch of rusty blades, just because I could!
Of course, this is the same organisation that constantly tries to pass itself off as the supreme moral authority for the family, all the while spouting twisted nonsense disguised as science. This is the same organisation that tells people that "psychiatrists" and "science" have shown that people don't have to be gay. This is the same organisation that tries to pass off its intensely religious stance as common sense. The same organisation that is actively pro-censorship, anti-evolution and anti-divorce. Why should I even be surprised?
As a side note, I want to punch my fucking radio in every time that smug bastard "Dr." Dobson comes on 90.5. I don't see how he's even allowed on our bullshit secular airwaves. Just because he pretends that his entire ultra-conservative Christian stance isn't motivated by religion, but for the good of the family. Oh, go burn some books and witches already.
* The original sentence read, "...a 70% rate of prevention of cervical cancer". Read more about the issue in this news article, here and in the comments.
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