Should 6th Grade Girls be vaccinated for STD and Cancer?

I am not sure what is going on in Illinois or why a state legislator would introduce a bill that would mandate that 6th grade girls receive the HPV vaccination, I found this article online at Stop The ACLU, (which is somewhat of an interesting name, since this cause seems like a case the ACLU might actually bring up. I tried doing a little more research into this group, but could not find any, if you know anything about them, please comment and let me know.)

No one wants the government rifling through his or her bank accounts. The FBI has no business perusing your grocery lists. The right of privacy is clear in this country. With very few exceptions, the government has no reason to mandate that you tell them about your finances, your relationships, or your personal health.

That is why Representative Naomi Jakobsson’s bill, HB115, is unconstitutional. The bill requires that sixth grade girls receive the vaccination for HPV before going to public or private school. Many similar laws and proposals have cropped up in other states as well.

The decision to get the HPV vaccine should be between a woman, her parents if applicable, and her doctor. HB115 does not specifically require that girls entering the sixth grade get the vaccine, but it does require the disclosure of whether that vaccine has been administered or not. The school has no need of that information. The right of privacy dictates that the government cannot demand private sexual health information.

Schools have a compelling interest to know which students are vaccinated or not for diseases such as polio, mumps and the like. These diseases can be transmitted in the classroom where students are required to congregate. Even if parents choose not to vaccinate, the schools could use the information to contain an outbreak should one occur.

With HPV, no plausible or allowable situation would allow for the transmission of a sexually transmitted disease in school. Quite simply students aren’t allowed to have sex at school for obvious reasons.

Now, I don't know much about this particular drug, but I agree there is no reason to mandate any child to receive a drug (especially expiremental) unless it is for the common good, such as those mentioned above. I don't know, maybe I am naive, and I don't know the actual odds, but it does not seem that so many people are getting this form of cancer that necessitates every woman ir gyrl receiving this vaccine. Seems more like a Pharma marketing department trying to do a doctors job, and that really bothers me. Almost as much as a legislator from Illinois doing the marketing job for a major drug company. Or maybe it is just me.

I am also a little bothered that I have seen TV commercials pushing this type of drug, and having woman ask their doctors about it. Maybe I am old fashioned, but I was a big supporter of Pharma marketing (B2B) only to physicians and hospitals, rather than this recent trend (B2C) direct to the consumer, think Cialis, Levitra, Lipitor, Zoloft, etc.

On a somewhat different note, I find it interesting that the public school my kindergarten son attends has detailed medical information which includes the name of my wife's OB/GYN that delivered my son, the type of delivery it was (Vaginal/C-Section) and whether there were any complications associated with the birth. Now my question is, why the Frig do the schools need this information. I understand if a child has a developmental issue, then a psychologist or a social worker might want to investigate these factors to determine a correlation between these events and the outcome of a child's abilities. But to the best of my knowledge, Jacob is a normal, well adjusted 5 year old.

I am sure, when we enrolled him in public school one of the forms we signed authorized the school or the board of education to obtain this information, but my fundamental question is why? What is the relevance of the public school having this information, and more importantly what are they doing to protect Jacob and my wife's privacy? Who has access to this information? Is it digital or still on paper? Can any staff person access this or just his Principal, Vice-Principle, Teacher, Social Worker, Janitor, etc?

This makes me think I need to ask a few more questions regarding this policy before I am satisfied. I have a sneaky feeling I am not going to like what I hear. What do think?

Added 1/28/2007 @11:18 PM Here are some more links regarding this story (Thanks Carol):

Sixth grade girls to face mandatory cervical cancer vaccinations under Michigan bill

Bill would require sixth-grade girls get HPV vaccine\

Rojonews