The Volokh Conspiracy - Family Research Council Opposing Vaccination:

New Scientist reports:

Deaths from cervical cancer could jump fourfold to a million a year by 2050, mainly in developing countries. This could be prevented by soon-to-be-approved vaccines against the [sexually transmitted HPV] virus that causes most cases of cervical cancer . . . . [T]o prevent infection, girls will have to be vaccinated before they become sexually active, which could be a problem in many countries.

In the US, [however,] religious groups are gearing up to oppose vaccination . . . . "Abstinence is the best way to prevent HPV," says Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council, . . . [which] has made much of the fact that, because it can spread by skin contact, condoms are not as effective against HPV as they are against other viruses such as HIV.

"Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful, because they may see it as a licence to engage in premarital sex," Maher claims . . . .

(Thanks to InstaPundit for the pointer.)

This strikes me as a pretty wrongheaded attitude on the Family Research Council's part. I highly doubt that many women are now avoiding premarital sex because of the risk of HPV; I doubt therefore that more than a few women will start having premarital sex simply because they learn that they've been vaccinated. Moreover, premarital abstinence isn't a perfect way to prevent HPV: Mother Nature doesn't distinguish husbands from casual lovers for purposes of deciding whether a virus is communicated, and many an abstinent woman marries a man whose past isn't as chaste as hers. (The vaccine, at least at this stage, doesn't seem perfect, either, but the vaccine can still be of help even to women who don't have sex before they marry.) Finally, to the best of my knowledge babies can get HPV from their mothers as they pass through the birth canal -- hardly a family-friendly result.

Naturally, there are empirical questions involved here: If HPV vaccination does lead to much more premarital or extramarital sex, people may ultimately conclude -- even on purely public health grounds, and especially on moral grounds, if they think such sex is immoral -- that the vaccination would be counterproductive. But I suspect that the pro-promiscuity effect of the vaccination would be extremely slight, and vastly outweighed by the decrease in suffering that a successful immunization program may yield.

Finally, I wonder how far the Family Research Council would take this. The availability of antibiotic treatment for syphilis, gonorrhea, and other bacterial sexually transmitted diseases similarly decreases the cost of sex, and may thus increase people's tendency to engage in sex. The effect is probably greater, since those diseases are better known, I think, than HPV. The prospect that treatment will be available seems as likely (or as unlikely) to be seen "as a licence to engage in premarital sex" as vaccination against HPV would be. (One generally vaccinates against viruses and uses antibiotics against bacteria, but I'd think that the attitude-altering effect of the two would be similar, even if not completely identical.) Would the FRC urge that people not be offered treatment for these diseases?

	[Eugene Volokh, May 4, 2005 at 6:33pm] Trackbacks Family Research Council Opposing Vaccination: New Scientist reports: Deaths from cervical cancer could jump fourfold to a million a year by 2050, mainly in developing countries. This could be prevented by soon-to-be-approved vaccines against the [sexually transmitted HPV] virus that causes most cases of cervical cancer . . . . [T]o prevent infection, girls will have to be vaccinated before they become sexually active, which could be a problem in many countries. In the US, [however,] religious groups are gearing up to oppose vaccination . . . . "Abstinence is the best way to prevent HPV," says Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council, . . . [which] has made much of the fact that, because it can spread by skin contact, condoms are not as effective against HPV as they are against other viruses such as HIV. "Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful, because they may see it as a licence to engage in premarital sex," Maher claims . . . . (Thanks to InstaPundit for the pointer.) This strikes me as a pretty wrongheaded attitude on the Family Research Council's part. I highly doubt that many women are now avoiding premarital sex because of the risk of HPV; I doubt therefore that more than a few women will start having premarital sex simply because they learn that they've been vaccinated. Moreover, premarital abstinence isn't a perfect way to prevent HPV: Mother Nature doesn't distinguish husbands from casual lovers for purposes of deciding whether a virus is communicated, and many an abstinent woman marries a man whose past isn't as chaste as hers. (The vaccine, at least at this stage, doesn't seem perfect, either, but the vaccine can still be of help even to women who don't have sex before they marry.) Finally, to the best of my knowledge babies can get HPV from their mothers as they pass through the birth canal -- hardly a family-friendly result. Naturally, there are empirical questions involved here: If HPV vaccination does lead to much more premarital or extramarital sex, people may ultimately conclude -- even on purely public health grounds, and especially on moral grounds, if they think such sex is immoral -- that the vaccination would be counterproductive. But I suspect that the pro-promiscuity effect of the vaccination would be extremely slight, and vastly outweighed by the decrease in suffering that a successful immunization program may yield. Finally, I wonder how far the Family Research Council would take this. The availability of antibiotic treatment for syphilis, gonorrhea, and other bacterial sexually transmitted diseases similarly decreases the cost of sex, and may thus increase people's tendency to engage in sex. The effect is probably greater, since those diseases are better known, I think, than HPV. The prospect that treatment will be available seems as likely (or as unlikely) to be seen "as a licence to engage in premarital sex" as vaccination against HPV would be. (One generally vaccinates against viruses and uses antibiotics against bacteria, but I'd think that the attitude-altering effect of the two would be similar, even if not completely identical.) Would the FRC urge that people not be offered treatment for these diseases?