At last night’s CNN/Tea Party Republican presidential debate, Texas governor Rick Perry was slammed for his 2007 support of a state program vaccinating girls against Human Papilloma Virus — a sexually-transmitted virus that can lead to cervical cancer.
In the debate itself Michele Bachman described the vaccine as a “government injection,” and Perry’s decision as “a violation of a liberty interest.” She also accused Perry, whose chief of staff was a former lobbyist for vaccine manufacturer Merck Pharmaceutical, of pushing the program as payback for campaign donations from Merck.
But after the debate, in a CNN interview, she took it to a really weird place.
One objection to the HPV vaccine is the idea that it might encourage promiscuity by reducing the risks of sexual activity. In her interview, for whatever reason, Bachmann chose to hint at this objection rather than state it openly, and the result was a truly bizarre depiction of mandatory vaccination as — and there’s really no other way to put this — Uncle Sam raping your daughters with needles.
Here. Look:
“When you have innocent little 12-year-old girls,” she said, “that are being forced to have a government injection into their body — this is a liberty interest that violates the most deepest personal part of a little child. … A little girl doesn’t get a do over — once they have that vaccination in their body, once it causes its damage, that little girl doesn’t have a chance to go back.”
That’s just … wow. I don’t … I can’t …
Update | When I first posted this, I was gobsmacked by the language itself — the use of such heavily loaded molestation imagery to describe a non-invasive, voluntary medical procedure. But a little while ago a friend reposted it on Facebook, and two friends of his quickly commented to point out something else.
You know what, if anything in this discussion, “violates the most deepest personal part” of you? You know what “causes its damage,” and doesn’t give you “a chance to go back”?
Cervical cancer.
Second Update | I’ve asked the women who commented on my friend’s Facebook page for permission to repost their notes, and they’ve graciously given it. They sum this all up far better than I could:
Jeannette Elizabeth: “Someone should maybe describe for Bachmann, in intimate detail, the violation of lying in a hospital room, knees shaking, legs spread wide, having cancerous cells scraped from one’s cervix.”
Melinda Kersha McDonald: “I couldn’t agree with Jeanette more. I’ve been there and done that. I have scars that can’t be seen and complcations that will haunt me for the rest of my life. This vaccine could have saved me from that. Making cancer a thing of the past can never be a bad thing.”
studentactivism.net 
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September 13, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Astro
I’m with Bachman on this one, which is not to say she _isn’t_ out of her mind. But we can be very sure of only one thing: the HPV vaccine is a way for Merck to make big money, especially when someone like Gov. Perry rolls it out in a big state like TX. But I’ve read of bad and worse results after injection, and of ineffectiveness.
Note that you might go through your life without ever being exposed to HPV. But once injected with the vaccine, as Bachman says, there’s no getting away from it. Long story short, when they tell you this has a benefit for you, DON’T BELIEVE THEM! There’s WAY more in it for them to lie than to be truthful.
September 13, 2011 at 3:29 pm
crazygrrrl
I am a strong believer in the concept of informed consent, and I do question the ethicality of pushing the vaccine in a fear mongering, big brother knows best sort of way. I question its administration to young girls who are treated like sheep and vaccinated without education or choice.
But what Bachman has to say on the subject is incomprehensible and horrifying, wrong on so many levels it’s hard to know what to respond to first.
September 13, 2011 at 5:24 pm
crazygrrrl
http://crazyadventuresofcrazygirl.com/2011/09/13/but-enough-about-all-that-can-you-skip-to-the-part-where-your-legs-were-spread/
September 15, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Thoughts on Bachmann’s “Viral Politics” « Knitting Clio
[…] Student Activism(among many others). At Tuesday night’s CNN/Tea Party Republican presidential debate, […]
September 16, 2011 at 4:09 pm
Caspianxi
Canada has reccommended public funding for vaccination programs, but they are not manditory, and there is a great deal of disagreement about the effectivness of any of the commercial vaccines in preventing cervical cancer.
The best summary I can find of the discussion that occured in Canada about this a few years ago is here: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20070801/hpv_vaccine_070801/
On a completely theoretical tangent: I think manditory vaccination removes the patient/person’s option of informed consent, and should only be done in situations where there is no other option (pandemic, epidemic).This is not one of those situations. In this case, the other option is due care, education and social change, rather than a quick fix that won’t be useful when a new strain of HPV becomes dominant, or when we discover that the vaccine has a number of unintended long term side effects.
As the canadian studies point out- cervical cancer is prevented just as easily by routine checkups, so maybe it would be a good idea to roll out a program to make those easier to do. Sure, pap tests are no fun- but neither is anything they are meant to test for.
Ultimately, vaccination arguments turn irrational pretty fast- and this looks like it’s getting that way.
September 16, 2011 at 4:18 pm
Caspianxi
additionally:
A slightly more flexible reading of her comment could indicate that she’s talking about what would happen if, say, the poorly tested vaccine had some sort of surprise side-effect that was life-affecting.
Not that I’m trying to stand up for her- I just don’t think she’s the sort of person who would allude to something like rape, when she could just say it outright.