What Do You Think of CA Bill AB 499 (Vaccine Related)

I live in California and it's funny that you brought this up because it was a topic at the GOP debate last night (Texas Gov. Perry has forced pre-teens to have the Gardisil vac -- and the maker is one of his campaign donors, hmmm). I absolutely and COMPLETELY agree with Ron Paul on this one -- it's wrong, wrong, wrong.

Until my daughter is 18 years old, I want to know exactly what is and isn't going on with her health and that includes all vaccines. IMO, this vaccine is not needed and "prevention" of cervical cancer from STDs is entirely preventable. And for the record, I am not a member of the no vaccine crowd.

Personally, I'd rather pay for prevention than the STD-related complications later. Same goes for providing birth control.

I'm all for this. If a girl wants to take a wise preventative step, esp. before she's likely to become sexually active (and don't think teens aren't), I'm good with it. Honestly, though, I don't see a mad rush of teens wanting to get vaccines. :)

I would say if you're worried about vaccine reactions, share those concerns with your daughter. We have a lot of alcoholism in our families, so we'll be having frank talks with our kids about the real dangers for them with underage drinking. I see it along the same lines.

I think it's disgusting. They belong to the parents until they are 18. No one should be able to give consent but the parents. I hate this vaccine because girls are dying and/or having extreme reactions to this vaccine. The first boy died of it not too long along ago. There is a documentary coming out soon called "One More Girl" and hopefully people will wake up and realize that this is a horrible vaccine. And why would you even want this? If you get HPV (which most people will get now if they're sexually active) it goes away on it's own, as long as it's not the the kind that effects the mouth . As long as you are getting routine checkups, you most likely wont get cancer from it. You can still get, and probably will get HPV even with the shot. I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think I remember reading that this shot only "protects" against one strain of HPV.

I'm torn. As a parent, I would want to know every medical treatment my daughter is getting and I want to be the one to decide on whether or not she gets any vaccines. But when it comes to treatment of STDs, maybe this would open the door for teenagers to seek treatment instead of not getting treatment for fear of someone finding out they are sexually active. Maybe if a teen could get medical treatment confidentially they maybe more willing to get it.

I don't think any 12 year old should be able to "consent" to any medical procedure without parental consent. Heck, they can't even get their ears pierced without parental consent.

So are they going to teach the benefits of vaccines against STDs and then line them up to receive it at school without parents approval. No way!! I would be so very very angry.

It does then also allow the distribution of condoms to children 12 and older.

Don't mess with my children and my parental rights!!

Frankly, if a 12 year old has a STD and can't talk to her parents about it, I have no problem allowing her to consent to medical treatment. I'm not sure why that subsection (b) was added to the bill regarding prevention of STD's, but Gardisil would certainly fall into that category, presuming the patient was not already sexually active. My understanding is there is no point to the vaccine if they've already had sex. But I wouldn't want my kid getting Gardisil without my knowledge. To me, that's more than treatment. I guess I would make sure my almost 12 year old knew about the vaccine and whether or not it was appropriate should she wind up in this situation.

Personally any government entity shoving something like this down my throat scares me. I am the parent and will make the decision as to which vaccines they will and won't get. As for Gardisil don't get me started...

I don't like it at all. I was talking with my husband about this last night. I remember seeing it on the vaccine schedule for my son. I don't know if they are giving it to boys yet, but I say no.

I cant even wrap my mind around the part about minors making these decisions for themselves.

I find it terribly frightening.
Young children are not capable of understanding all the in's and out's of these types of life altering decisions. Nor should they have to.
Scary times we are facing.

I think it is the right thing to do. Way too many kids do not or cannot (for fear of being beaten, disowned, kicked out of the house) tell their parents they are sexually active and so are not able to protect themselves from disease. Gardisil protects against the strains of HPV causing 70% of cervical CANCER cases. Despite PAP smears, cervical cancer still kills. The vaccine also protects against 90% of genital warts. Because parents have their heads in the sand that their child would never have sex is no reason for kids to die. I am sure most parents with pregnant children did not know the child was having sex.

Go over the vaccine problems with your daughter and make her understand that she really has to discuss any shots with you prior to getting them no matter what a doctor tells her. Let her know there have been severe medical issues in your family and the doctors need to know a full medical history before she ever gets shots.

I don't think the bill is a bad thing and I don't think it's meant as a Gardasil pusher. It's meant to encourage kids who are obviously having problems but are scared of saying anything to their parents to seek medical treatment. There are some scary STDs out there that are not only spread if not treated, but they can lead to serious medical complications. Syphilis is particularly nasty, but if treatment is started in time, it can make all the difference. Even some "minor" STDs can cause sterility, which would be pretty sad for a 14 or 15 year old girl who made a mistake and will never be able to have kids.

I am SO upset by this! My kid is my kid and I am in charge of him until he is 18. As a parent I make his choices NOT anyone else and NO ONE else has the right to do ANYTHING to my child without my consent. I will always teach my kids to never do anything with out first talking to me but look how easy it is for parents to get strong armed (drs, school, etc) into thinking they don't have a choice. How easy will it be to make a child feel like he needs to do something. If this doesn't get vetod it will start a slow domino effect of taking our choices away as parents and letting the state tell us how to take care of our kids. I don't agree with the vaccine or their effectiveness but if someone else does I believe they can choose that, just like I should be able to choose not to for my child.

Yes, some kids might want this and be fearful of their parents reaction but why would we take away everyones right? Hurt the masses to help a few. Doesn't make sense to me.

Also, it isn't any coincidence that bill is getting passed before several new STD vaccines are coming out. My child is not going to be their test rat! I am sure the vaccine companies are scared of those parents that are using their rights to choose and this is the perfect way to get around that. Just horrifically disgusting! Shameful!