Cancer Jab or the Right Nail Polish?

By lowri turner

A Catholic school in Bury, Great Manchester, has banned the new cervical cancer jab for girls. It believes that the injection could “encourage sexual promiscuity”.

Do they also ban the rubella jab?

This has been given to girls, certainly since I was at school.

The aim of giving the rubella vaccination at 11 is to prevent any girl who might get pregnant from catching German measles and damaging her unborn child. This could also be seen to encourage teenage sex.

And yet, when my class at school lined up to be stabbed in the arm, there was no great rush afterwards to lose our virginity. We simply shuffled along as we were told to do and then rolled down our sleeves and got back to class.

The same will surely be true of the cancer jab. Adults may debate the moral and medical complexities of the HPVvirus and vaccine, but pubescent girls? They’ll be too busy comparing nail polish colours.

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