AUSTIN, Texas (ABP) — Advocates for mandating a vaccine that can prevent cervical cancer for teenage girls have received two new setbacks, with a lawsuit against the first state to make the regimen mandatory and an announcement that the pharmaceutical company that makes the vaccine has stopped lobbying other states to follow suit.
A group of Texas parents filed suit in an Austin court Feb. 23 against Gov. Rick Perry (R), challenging his authority to mandate the human papilloma virus (or HPV) vaccine for the state's schoolgirls.
Two days earlier, pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. announced it would suspend lobbying efforts to get state legislatures to emulate Perry's executive order.
Strong criticism — mostly from his fellow social conservatives — has followed Perry since he issued the executive order Feb. 2. Texas legislators are currently considering bills to reverse the mandate.
HPV is among the most common sexually transmitted diseases. By some estimates, up to 70 percent of all sexually active adults in the United States are infected, with most carriers not exhibiting symptoms. Some strains of the virus cause warts. Others can cause cervical cancer. The Merck vaccine, known commercially as Gardasil, is the first federally approved drug that prevents infection by HPV strains that cause most cases of cervical cancer.
According to American Cancer Society estimates, 11,150 American women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer this year, and 3,670 will die from the disease during the same period. Cervical cancer tends to affect women at a younger age than other cancers, with about half of instances occurring in women between the ages of 35 and 55.
Most conservative opponents of Perry's order have said they support the vaccine but oppose its mandatory nature — even though Perry's order includes an opt-out provision for parents who object to the vaccination. Some religious conservatives say they oppose the vaccine because they believe it may encourage premarital sex and it contradicts the state's official abstinence-based sex-education policy.
The lawsuit questions Perry's legal authority to issue the order and asks the court to stop the state from spending money to enforce it until questions are settled. “The school-age girls of Texas are not guinea pigs who may be subjected to medial procedures at the apparent whim of Texas' governor,” a court filing for the plaintiffs said.
Perry's order made Texas the first state to mandate Gardasil for girls attending school, but several other state legislatures are considering similar moves. Merck had been lobbying legislators to promote the vaccine while funding a group that donated to state legislators considering HPV-vaccination laws.
Conservative groups against the vaccine publicized Merck's lobbying tactics, and the company apparently bowed to the pressure.
The Family Research Council called Merck's reversal “no small victory” for organizations opposed to Perry's move.
-30-
Read more:
Texas becomes unlikely test case for vaccine fighting cancer, STD (2/15)