House File 187, by Shipley, is a bill designed to increase human papillomavirus infections — an illness known to cause increased risk of cervical cancer in women. This bill strips information on the availability of HPV vaccines from health and human development curricula in public schools. If it passes, it will ensure that more young Iowans remain ignorant of a simple, safe, and effective way to prevent a life threatening disease later in their lives.

Most human beings with at least a modicum of empathy and compassion want to decrease cancer rates and preventable infections. But not Jeff Shipley, the Representative from Van Buren. He believes that if teenagers learn about the HPV vaccine, it will make them all want to run out and have sex. That nonsequitur fails even the slightest scrutiny. Science makes it abundantly clear that knowledge of the HPV vaccine does not increase anyone’s desire for sex. But Jeff Shipley doesn’t know or care, as long as he can throw another slab of culture war meat to his hungry voter base.

Current law requires that the human growth and development or health curriculum provided to students enrolled in school districts, accredited nonpublic schools, and charter schools be both research-based and age-appropriate. Within those limitations, current law also requires that the human growth and development or health curriculum include information regarding the availability of a vaccine to prevent human papilloma virus. The bill strikes this requirement.