There is a point when those doing the most damage to a cause are its most fervent supporters. When an ideology becomes associated with its most fanatical believers, the entire movement loses credibility. It happens on the left when Greenpeace damages a coral reef in the process of protesting environmental damage. And it happens on the right when anything related to sex, even a cervical cancer vaccine, becomes the subject of protest.

Health advocates want a new vaccine that protects against cervical cancer to become a part of the standard roster of shots that children receive just before puberty. But some conservatives object because, "immunizing teenagers could encourage sexual activity." Because, you know, when on the verge of having sex most teenagers stop and say to themselves, "Wait, I haven't been properly immunized against the human papilloma virus responsible for cervical cancer. I guess I shouldn't do this afterall."

More about the virus from PZ Myers:

Here's a disease that kills about a third of the women who get it. It turns their reproductive tract into a nest of tumors that can spread and shut down the kidneys, metastasize to the lungs, the gut, everywhere, that sterilizes them and can cause horrible agony. The treatment involves radical hysterectomy, bilateral adnexectomy and lymphadenectomy, words I'd rather my family never even have to learn.

Roughly 10,000 women each year are diagnosed with cervical cancer, and the vaccine is said to be almost 100-percent effective. Alan Kaye, executive director of the National Cervical Cancer Coalition, perhaps had the best response to the right-wing protests:

"Just because you wear a seat belt doesn't mean you're seeking out an accident."