Ron Liepert, Health Minister for Alberta, has severely criticized the province’s Catholic school boards for deciding not to participate in the programme offering free HPV vaccines to girls against the sexually transmitted virus, responsible for causing cervical cancer.  He states this unfortunate decision on moral grounds puts the girls health at risk of contracting a disease that kills 400-Canadian women each year. 

Chiding trustees, Calgary Catholic Bishop Fred Henry has been specifically singled out for suggesting along with other Bishops that the vaccine raises ethical questions, sending out the unintended message that casual sex is to be expected and is acceptable.  Giving approval to premarital sex they believe would pose profound risks to the spiritual, emotional, moral and physical health of young people.  Several Catholic bishops have publicly stated that they think the HPV vaccine promotes sex among young girls.

Liepert urged parents whose children are in the Catholic school system to contact the trustees and letting them know what they think of their decision to put their children at risk, when the vaccine has been proven safe and it is a fact that some 40 women (in Alberta) will die this year of cervical cancer.

Health Canada has approved Gardasil, with $300 million made available to the provinces for giving the vaccine that will be offered in every province in Canada, with at least one Catholic school district in Ontario voting not to allow the vaccine to be given on school premises.  While in Alberta, the HPV vaccine will be given to Grade 5 girls beginning September 2008 and Grade 9 girls in 2009, but only with parental consent.

The second most common type of cancer to inflict women aged 20 – 44-years, it is estimated about 1,300 Canadian women contract the sexually transmitted virus each year in Canada, with 400 women dying of cervical cancer annually.