Continued from HPV Vaccine Side Effects.

“Many children are savvy about sex, and it’s better to get accurate information than for kids to receive mixed messages,” says Dr. Nadine Burke, medical director of the Bayview Child Health Center in San Francisco.

“People have religious reasons, cultural reasons for not approaching this. It’s unfortunate because it leaves many people unprotected from the number-one sexually transmitted disease.”

For many parents queried about where they stood on the issue, the future health of their daughters overrode any perception that getting the vaccine was an unspoken approval of early sexual activity. At least one parent bristled at the notion, noting that such an argument muddies the waters of providing such needed protection.

“All the talk that it will make our girls more sexually active is nonsense. Having been vaccinated or not has no impact on a teenager’s decision to have sex, and it seems that if we can do something that will reduce her risk of cervical cancer, there’s no reason not to,” says one parent.

When asked whether the vaccine for girls as young as 9 should be state-mandated, one father of a daughter in middle school is in strong support. “I do think the vaccine should be mandated,” he says. “It’s good medical science and good public health policy for all girls to get this vaccine in middle school, before they become sexually active.

Parents should not be able to opt out of the vaccine for their daughters due to religious or other personal beliefs. In this case, due to the lifesaving nature of this vaccine, I think the public health advantages of the vaccine trump parental rights.”

In contrast, another parent does not believe the vaccine should be legally required, and when it comes to his four daughters getting immunized, he is on the fence. “It should be up to the individual family and their choice,” he says. “I’m leery when the Centers for Disease Control creates these things. I’m not ready to risk my children’s lives.”

Until legislated otherwise, when making that individual decision, many doctors urge parents to keep in mind that while a young woman may not be engaging in sexual behavior, the vaccine protects her in the event a future adult partner was exposed to HPV.