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Alberta Bishops Take Action against HPV Vaccination Campaign in Schools

By Jenna Murphy

EDMONTON, June 24, 2008, (LifeSiteNews.com) - Alberta's Bishops released a statement on Monday warning parents that in allowing their daughters to receive the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination, they are in effect condoning pre-marital sex and subjecting them to a plethora of other health risks.

"Catholic teaching is that sexuality is a God-given gift that should be reserved for marriage," the bishops wrote in the letter to parents.

"So-called 'casual' or 'recreational' sexual activity carries with it profound risks to a young person's spiritual, emotional, moral and physical health.

"At best, a vaccine can only be potentially effective against one of these risks, that to physical health, and may have other unintended and unwanted consequences."

The Alberta government recently announced that the HPV vaccine will be offered to Grades 5 and 9 girls beginning in September as part of a $20 million per year program affecting over 40,000 young girls over three years. These vaccines are being administered in response to the Harper Conservative government's $300 million national HPV vaccination campaign.

Among those school boards in support of the HPV vaccine program are the Catholic School boards in Edmonton and Calgary, who plan on sending the Bishop's letter home to the parents before the vaccine is administered in order to help them to make an "informed decision".

"We support the Catholic teachings of sexuality while encouraging parents to make an informed decision on the HPV Vaccine. The District believes that this is a health issue and not a religious one," said Cindy Olsen, Chairperson of the Edmonton Catholic school Board.

The HPV vaccine works to inhibit the contraction of the Human Papilloma Virus (an exclusively sexually-transmitted disease) which is linked to higher risks of cervical cancer.

In the Monday statement, sent out in the form of a letter to parents, the Bishops appealed to Alberta's approximately 900,000 Catholics to make themselves aware of the vaccination's limitations in preventing cervical cancer. "There is no general consensus that the HPV vaccination is the most prudent strategy in terms of allocating health-care resources aimed at preventing deaths from cervical cancer," read the statement, which continued on to urge parents to "learn the medical facts about Gardasil and its limitations before deciding whether their daughters should receive the vaccine."

A follow-up letter is expected as the Bishop's are now returning home from the International Eucharistic Congress in Quebec City and were unavailable for comment.

Critics of the HPV vaccines have observed that in the aggressive drive to mass-vaccinate North America's young women against HPV (and cervical cancer as an afterthought), research on the vaccine's side-effects has been conducted hastily.

In less than the span of a year, the HPV vaccine was associated with 11 deaths and over 3,500 medical complications, including paralysis, Bells Palsy, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and seizures (see: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/sep/07092004.html).

In one case, a physician's assistant reported that a 12-year-old girl "died of a blood clot three hours after getting the Gardasil [HPV] vaccine".

On Health Canada's website it is stated that the vaccine is only credited for having preventative qualities for up to 5 years and that the vaccine "does not provide protection against any of the other high or low-risk types of HPV". As well, the Canadian Medical Association journal printed an article asserting that pap-smear tests are preferable to the HPV vaccine for cervical cancer prevention.

"A sufficient number of unanswered questions lead us to conclude that a universal immunization program...could possibly have unintended negative consequences," says the article published last August.

To respectfully voice concern:

Edmonton Catholic School District
Catholic Education Services
9807-106 Street
Edmonton, AB
T5K 1C2
Tel: (780) 441-6000
Toll Free: 1-888-441-6010
Fax: (780) 425-8759
Email:  

AND

Catholic School Centre
Communications Department
1000 - 5 Avenue SW
Calgary, AB   T2P 4T9
(403) 298-1363
.

The reports from the FDA Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System detailing the three previous deaths are available here:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007_docs/GardasilVAERSDeath...

The reports detailing all 1637 adverse effects are here:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007_docs/GardasilVAERSRepor...

Why Medical Authorities Cannot be Trusted on Gardasil HPV Vaccine
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07121905.html

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