Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce has been a breath of fresh air in the
tightly disciplined world of federal parliament, providing novel
perspectives and comic relief where they have been sorely needed.

But some things just aren’t funny, and it needs to be pointed out just
what an evil thing Joyce is saying about cervical cancer, as reported in this morning’s Australian.

A team led by Australian of the year professor Ian Frazer has developed
a vaccine against the viruses that cause most cases of cervical cancer.

But Joyce and others are concerned about using it in case it “would promote teenage promiscuity.” According to The Australian,
Joyce “said he would be ‘personally very circumspect’ about giving such
a vaccine to girls who were too young to cope with the potential
consequences of s*xual activity.”

Just think about what that means. These people are saying that teenage
girls need to be scared off having s*x by the threat of getting cancer.

Not just that teenage promiscuity is bad – reasonable people can
disagree about that – but that it’s so bad that cervical cancer is an
appropriate punishment for it.

And they have the gall to call themselves “pro-life”?