Every year, millions of Canadian children are given vaccinations at school to help combat any number of conditions. But the female students in Calgary's Catholic school system will be receiving one less shot than their public school counterparts. In 2008, a group of bishops led by Bishop Frederick Henry deemed that providing the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination - which guards girls against the four strands of HPV most associated with cervical cancer - to fifth and ninth-grade girls could be viewed as a compromise of Catholic teaching. Why? Because HPV is a sexually transmitted virus.
The National Post reports that when children in Calgary's Catholic schools were sent home with vaccination information from Alberta Health Services they were given an additional letter. Penned by Henry and five other bishops, the letter instructed parents that "Although school-based immunization delivery systems generally result in high numbers of students completing immunization, a school-based approach to vaccination sends a message that early sexual intercourse is allowed."
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