Abstinence Only = Oral Sex = Throat Cancer

Uh Oh, Another Unintended Consequence

The lead story headline in the May 12 Science News magazine reads like this:
Risk Factor

Throat cancer linked
to virus spread by sex

The virus is the very same HPV (human papillomavirus) that causes cervical cancer and about which there's so much controversy concerning the new HPV vaccine Merck has been pushing for young girls.

The article says throat cancer patients were "more apt to have engaged in oral sex with multiple partners over past years..." And there is more research showing it's because of HPV.

Granted, people of all ages engage in promiscuous oral sex, but the big scary thing is all the new info about how teens who have committed to Abstinence Until Marriage don't consider oral sex to be a violation of their pledge and treat it as just "making out" or "messing around." If those same teens got their sex education in the "abstinence only" mode, they have been spared the truth about how sexually transmitted diseases are transmitted.

Thank heavens the Democratic Congress is about to de-fund much of the abstinence only foolishness. Perhaps this latest medical news will snap some heads up.

Oh, Science News stats: 11,800 The predicted number of new U.S. cases of oropharyngeal cancer in 2007

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