Jon Huntsman Sr. Gives $1 Million to Prevent Cervical Cancer

By Tracy Medley, 4-05-07

The Utah Legislature isn’t known for its compassion toward women’s health issues and their recent refusal to earmark funds to provide immunization against cervical cancer for underinsured and uninsured women.  Luckily for Utah women – billionaire Jon Huntsman Sr. stepped in to do what our Legislature refused to. Huntsman Sr. has offered up $1 million to the Utah Department of Health, who announced the generous gift on Wednesday.

Huntsman said in a letter to the health department, “My quest in life and my pledge in death . . . is to assist in the eradication of cancer in all its ugly mannerisms, irrespective of cause.”

The $1 million will be used to promote and provide Gardasil, a vaccine that has show enormous promise in guarding women from the human papillomavirus (HPV), the sexually transmitted disease known for causing cervical cancer. Ah ha! and now we know why the Legislature passed. Conservative lawmakers worried that officially approving the vaccination would encourage promiscuity among young women, that’s according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

Gee-whiz ma. I wasn’t going to have pre-marital sex before, but now that I know I’ve lessened my chances for developing cervical cancer – promiscuity, here I come!!”

There is a sinister side to this otherwise hilarious argument: women’s lives are at risk and their Legislators seem to think it’s cute to withhold prevention because the words “sexually transmitted” ruffle their moral sensibilities (read: “values” platform). It’s ghoulish at best for state lawmakers to play the promiscuity card when it comes to cancer. The very idea suggests that women who develop cervical cancer somehow deserve it – and that is simply an outrageous and unacceptable claim.

It’s wonderful that Papa Huntsman came through with both cash and compassion; hopefully Utah lawmakers will pay attention and follow his lead next year when they have another chance to, as Aretha would say – do right.