To deny schoolgirls a cervical cancer jab on religious grounds is scandalous

It's absurd for schools to opt out because of 'Christian values'. Policing girls' bodies to satisfy outdated ideals puts lives at risk
Teenage schoolgirls
'The HPV vaccine's sole purpose is saving lives. This patronising restriction allows gendered prejudice to trump scientific evidence.' Photograph: Alamy

There's something unique about women's health initiatives that seems to incite moral panic. Last week's 2012 London Summit on Family Planning discussed in detail the perceived and continued controversy around access to contraceptives for women in developing countries. But with issues such as reproductive rights and reproductive health, it's always worth analysing affairs closer to home. Just yesterday it was revealed that a number of religious schools in the UK chose to opt out of providing female pupils the HPV vaccine – an immunisation that the World Health Organisation recommends young women receive to prevent cervical cancers.

It is an absolute scandal that young women are being denied access to the vaccine on religious grounds. Not only are some of these schools opting out of providing the injection, but they're also neglecting to inform GPs of their decision – thus preventing young women from accessing the vaccine altogether. Schools that are failing to inform female pupils that they can access the vaccine outside of school premises are doing young women, and their health, a gross disservice.

When the HPV vaccine was first introduced as part of the national immunisation programme, there were cries of its mere existence encouraging teenage promiscuity from the religious right. So desperate were these people to exercise control over what women did with our bodies, they saw fit to ignore the vaccine's sole purpose: saving lives. This pre-emptive, patronising restriction allows gendered prejudice to trump scientific evidence. The human papillomavirus claims 1,000 victims a year in the form of cervical cancers, and the HPV vaccine prevents 70% of them. This means it is absolutely vital in girls in their early teens are able to access the injection.

From peer pressure to "Christian values", the reasons provided by schools that opted out of the programme are tenuous at best. One opted out because their pupils "follow strict Christian principles, marry within their own community, and do not practise sex outside marriage". Whether that is or isn't the case on an individual basis, no school should assume a monopoly over their pupils' health based on religious belief. It's ridiculous for any school to even attempt to assume omniscience about what happens in their pupils' private lives. There are lots pupils who attend religious schools who aren't religious. Furthermore, in the worst case scenario, religious values won't protect a teenage girl who has been raped or sexually assaulted from cancer – but the HPV vaccine will.

Projecting adult paranoia about promiscuity on to young women helps no one. At the crux of religious opposition to the HPV vaccine is a belief that young women cannot be trusted to make decisions about their own bodies. But policing female bodies to satisfy outdated, sexist ideals is more than just misguided – it is putting the lives of the next generation of women at risk. The choice to receive the vaccine must be put in the hands of the girls it is aimed at, and not blocked by any authority.

It's time for needless moralising over the bodies of women and girls to end. Whether it's religious institutions in developing countries opposing the use of contraceptives for women, or religious schools in the UK opting out of the HPV vaccination programme, restricting women and girl's access to medical aid is a matter of public health.

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