This article in the Washington Post is ridiculous. Earlier this fall Merck came up with a vaccine that is 100% effective against cervical cancer. Health groups want to add this shot to the mandatory list of immunizations given to young girls before reaching puberty. Yes, finally we’ve made an advance that can help us stop cancer, and who opposes it, conservatives.

Conservative medical groups have been fielding calls from concerned parents and organizations, officials said.

“I’ve talked to some who have said, ‘This is going to sabotage our abstinence message,’ ” said Gene Rudd, associate executive director of the Christian Medical and Dental Associations. But Rudd said most people change their minds once they learn more, adding that he would probably want his children immunized. Rudd, however, draws the line at making the vaccine mandatory.

There you have it, part of the social conservative strategy to keep abstinence only education is to scare girls with cancer. This is absolutely shameful, you want to teach abstinence that’s fine, but to oppose a drug because it would save lives and save women the unfortunate fate of cervical cancer if they made a mistake is ridiculous. That is a campaign of fear, not education, and after all isn’t that what the abstinence only movement’s strategy has been all along anyway, don’t give all the facts, just the ones made to intimidate. Why equip our children to be able to make intelligent and informed decisions about sex when we can just scare the shit out of them.