Representative Michele Bachmann, who may be the Republican candidate in 2012, has been quoted as saying that the vaccine to prevent cervical cancer is "dangerous." Meanwhile, her husband runs a religious clinic that tries to turn gays "straight." It turns out that pediatricians in Appalachia are less likely than doctors in other areas to encourage parents to have their children receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, despite studies showing that Appalachian women are more likely to get cervical cancer and to die from it than women living elsewhere. Could this be a religious bias borne out of a fear of encouraging sexual promiscuity in adolescent girls?
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