Pushing back on Perry's HPV vaccine plan

Today House committee on HPV took testimony on a bill that would overturn Gov. Rick Perry's executive order mandating that sixth-grade girls be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, H.B. 1098 (R-Bonnen). Free Market Foundation supports this bill for these reasons:

“The injection of virus-like particles into girls as young as 9-years-old for a sexually transmitted disease is a serious decision, best left to parents and their family doctor,” said Free Market Foundation Director of Legislative Affairs Jonathan Saenz. “Subverting the legislative process and mandating by unilateral order is not good for Texas and not good for our young girls,” said Saenz.

OverturnRP65 blog says: "The bill, HB 1098, now has 90 co-sponsors. This is almost the 100 votes needed to make the measure veto-proof."

The travesty of Perry's executive order is that the clinical basis for mandated use is not established. As the
American College of Pediatricians says:

Because the average time between initial HPV infection and death from cervical cancer is 20 years, definitive conclusions about HPV vaccine efficacy will take years to establish. ... Until further research is completed, HPV vaccine recipients should be fully informed as to the current limits of knowledge regarding the vaccine’s potency and duration of protection.

Because of these and other concerns, the American College of Pediatricians states they are "opposed to any legislation which would require HPV vaccination for school attendance."

Governor Perry has succeeded in creating a bipartisan consensus - opposing his unwise and unprecedented HPV vaccine executive order!