Catholic Officials Seek to Deny School-Aged Girls HPV Vaccine

Think the church can't get any worse? You're wrong! Apparently, Catholic officials in Canada are working hard to stop school-age girls from getting the life-saving HPV vaccine, which helps prevent cervical cancer. The publicly funded (!) school board governing Calgary Catholic schools has declined to give students HPV because they believe it will give girls the green-light to have premarital sex – the horror!

Bishop Frederick Henry jumped on the crazy-train in 2008, when the HPV program was first initiated in Calgary. He, along with five male Catholic cohorts, wrote letters to parents telling them HPV was bad because it would expose their daughters to "counterproductive influences and potential abuse.”

Of course, as Jezebel reminds us, girls can get HPV through rape or sexual abuse (you¹re familiar with that, right Pope Benedict?). We suggest a new motto for the Catholic Church: We hate women and gays with an equal fervor!

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