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The state legislature has successfully squashed Governor Rick Perry’s mandate requiring an anti-cancer vaccine for young girls.
“They have had an opportunity to eliminate the leading cause of the second-most common cancer in women,” Perry said. “They chose not to.”
The governor says he will not veto a bill blocking his February 1 executive order. It would have required all girls entering sixth grade to receive the vaccine against HPV, a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cervical cancer.
In the following months, both the House and Senate voted to overturn that decision, and they have enough votes to override any veto from the governor.
So what changes? Some say nothing. This vaccine has been and is still available right now to anyone who wants it.
“It’s time to extract this issue from the political arena and place it in the court of public opinion,” Perry said.
Cutting his losses, the governor ended his fight for a mandatory HPV vaccine for 6th grade girls in Texas. Perry implied lawmakers who opposed this mandate will be forever haunted by women who die from this disease. He did so by thanking the lawmakers who supported him.
“No lost lives will occupy the confines of their conscience,” Perry said.
Dawn Richardson with VaccineInfo.net is one of the biggest critics of this mandatory vaccine.
“I think a lot of people have questioned Governor Perry’s motives on this action because he has not been equally as passionate about other health care issues affecting children and families,” Richardson said.
She says people seem to forget that this vaccine is already available right now to anyone who wants it, and federally funded clinics and the Vacccines For Children programs will pay for it, if needed.
“There are ways to get this vaccine,” Richardson said. “The state is already paying for it right now, so you don’t have to have it forced in order to have access to it.”
Surrounded by women who’ve battled HPV, Perry defended his attempt to mandate the vaccine.
“My order always has been, and always will be, about protecting women’s health,” Perry said.
Wednesday morning on Firstcast, a pediatrician will answer your questions about HPV vaccine decisions in a live interview.
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