Claire Shefchik
Third Age
September 12, 2011
A mandate for girls to receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine led to criticism for Texas Gov. Rick Perry Wednesday night at the Republican presidential debate.
At the time, the 2007 executive order for Texas girls to receive the Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine drew criticism from social conservatives and the state legislature, reported NBC News’ Michael Isikoff.
Former Pennsylvania governor Rick Santorum drew attention to the move Wednesday, saying “I want to get back to this Gardasil issue. You know, we have — Gov. Perry’s out there and claiming about states’ rights and states’ rights. How about parental rights being more important than states’ rights?…I am offended that the government would tell me, and by an executive order, without even going through the process of letting the people have any kind of input. I would expect this from President Obama. I would not expect this form someone who’s calling himself a conservative governor.”
Texas was the first state to mandate that all teenage girls, beginning at age 12, receive Merck & Co. vaccine, which is intented to prevent HPV, a virus that can lead to cervical cancer.
“I readily stand up and say I made a mistake on that,” Perry said during an Iowa radio show last month. “We wanted to bring that to the attention of these thousands of-tens of thousands of young people in our state…at the end of the day, I will always err on the side of saving lives.”
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