No Science, No Sex, Just Religion

The presence of religion in the media is tricky. Like most things there is a time and place for practicing religion. The Bush Administration does not acknowledge the distinction between church and state, thereby obscuring one of the crucial building blocks of America. The Pharmaceutical company, Merck & Company, recently applied for a license to distribute a vaccine that has proved effective against the human papillomavirus (HPV). Unlike many treatments out on the market now, this vaccine has proven consistently successful. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease and many teenage girls would benefit from receiving the vaccine before they become sexually active. While the vaccine is likely to receive approval from the F.D.A. by June, the Bush Administration could easily thwart the success of the drug. Bush and his entourage (the religious base of the Republican Party) are stuck in a past where religion was a panacea and no unnecessary drugs or procedures that acknowledged ‘sin’ (sex) existed. Bush is against implementing mandatory vaccinations for the HPV virus before a child can enter public school. Rather than recognize the advancement of science indicated by such a vaccine, Bush and his religious advocates want to depend on education programs that endorse abstinence as the primary (and sole) way of avoiding STD’s. This is absurd. In a country where 17 is the average age when girls lose their virginity it is clear that medicines proven to prevent STD’s should be accessible and administered properly. I doubt that the woman who lost her virginity to President Bush distorted the aforementioned statistic. Yes HPV is avoidable if safe sex is guaranteed, but why paint a picture of a perfect society when we have ways of dealing with the problems of reality? While it is too early to definitively say that Bush will not realize the importance of administering the vaccine to children before they enter school, it is clear that Bush and his fellow conservatives such as Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma need to reevaluate their priorities. Admitting that promiscuity exists in America should not be of grave concern to Bush’s already stained legacy. The vaccine for HPV is only one sexually related drug that Bush and other religious conservatives deem to be permits for deplorable sexual activity. Religion shrouded under the veil of politics and then injected into the media is unacceptable. In this case, intellectuals, journalists and other media gatekeepers must harp on the Bush Administration’s backwards mentality and alert the general public that access to drugs like the HPV vaccine and Plan B is essential.