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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Jun 16.
Published in final edited form as: J Adolesc. 2013 Dec 10;37(2):133–143. doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2013.11.004

Table 4.

Promiscuity Related to HPV Vaccination: Examples from Qualitative Subsample (n=49 articles)

Source Message Text
The Washington Post 4/3/07 Not about promiscuity; prevention “’It’s not about promiscuity,’ said Dr. Anna R. Giuliano….’The more we can get that out of people’s minds, the faster we’ll be able to get prevention efforts out there’” (Stepp, 2007, np).
The Arizona Republic 5/20/07 Not about promiscuity; life- saving “The cervical cancer vaccine for girls is a Godsend. This isn’t about promoting promiscuous behavior. It’s about protecting your daughter from a life-threatening disease” (Azizi, 2007, np).
The Chicago Tribune 7/15/06 Not about promiscuity; life- saving “The point of the human papillomavirus vaccine is not promiscuity but saving lives. I have the HPV virus--got it from the only man I ever slept with, my husband. Celibacy is not the safety net it’s claimed to be” (Parra, 2006, np).
The Washington Post 4/3/07 Cancer prevention more important than abstinence “This vaccine would have to be given to preteens before they are sexually active. If that gives them the ‘wrong message’ - that we expect they’ll have premarital sex - what exactly is the ‘right message’? That we care more about their virginity than their life?” (Stepp, 2007, np).
The Baltimore Sun 3/13/07 Cancer not a deterrent to sexual activity “’But the idea that a vaccine is going to change a young woman’s calculus about whether to have sex or not strikes me as intensely unreasonable,’ said Brown, who studies the sexual decision-making of young people. ‘…The reasons that young people do and don’t have sex have zero to do with the perceived risk of cervical cancer at the age of 40’” (Reimer, 2007, np).
The Chicago Tribune 9/25/05 HPV not a deterrent to sexual activity “Some conservative groups worry that giving preadolescents a vaccine protecting them from human papillomavirus would give them a “green light” for sexual activity. My question: Since when has HPV been the only factor (or even a factor at all) in keeping kids abstinent?” (Hartman, 2005, np).