If only it were that simple. His essential point -- that parents are too stupid or too lazy to figure out this issue for themselves and thus the government should step in -- highlights a consistent criticism conservatives have about liberals. So perhaps it's not surprising that conservative groups have argued that mandating the HPV vaccine isn't the government's place.
But looked at another way, ultimately this is about an intrusive government versus one that doesn't meddle in the affairs of women's bodies. That's a principle progressives usually fall all over themselves to support.
The protracted debate about whether the HPV vaccine will make adolescent kids more likely to have sex is largely irrelevant. If some parents decide that possibility is reason enough to forgo the shot, however, isn't such their right -- regardless how foolish others may think their reasoning?
Indeed.
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