Last week, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) — who made headlines when she claimed that “women don’t care about contraception” — vetoed a bill that would have allowed free HPV vaccinations for girls. The bill passed overwhelmingly with bipartisan support, but Haley blocked it, despite sponsoring a bill to mandate HPV vaccinations for seventh grade girls as a state senator. After her veto, Haley said that her 2007 sponsorship was a “mistake.”

Following Haley’s opposition to the HPV vaccine bill, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said on her show that “being against cancer in the Republican Party is a scandal now”:

This week, the aversion to preventing cervical cancer — the idea that trying to prevent it is a scandal — that idea seems to be spreading…It is 2012 now, and so Governor Haley vetoed that bill. Because being against cancer in the Republic Party is a scandal now. At least being against cervical cancer is a scandal now. What, because it is a lady cancer, maybe? There is a vaccine for preventing this kind of cancer.

Watch Maddow’s comments:

The use of HPV vaccinations as a method to prevent cancer has scientific support. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “every year about 12,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 4,000 women die from this disease in the U.S.” By stopping the transmission of the disease, the HPV vaccine is a way of preventing cervical cancer.

Haley is not the only republican to backtrack from earlier support for the vaccine. In 2007, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) mandated the vaccine for young girls through an executive order. But when he was running for president, his GOP competitors blasted Perry for supporting the mandate. Perry eventually rescinded his position, and, like Haley, said that his support for the mandate was a mistake.

– Nina Liss-Schultz

Floods and abortions are distinctly different topics — except to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who is trying to attach an anti-choice amendment to the Senate’s flood insurance bill.

After years of delay, senators recently came to an agreement over the flood bill and were set to vote on it this week.

But now, Paul is threatening to hold up its final passage by adding an amendment defining when life begins. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) expressed his displeasure with that move this morning, saying he would not bring the bill up for a vote if the amendment is added:

This is ridiculous, that somebody says I’m not going to let this bill goes forward unless I have a vote on when life begins. I am not going to do that, and I think I speak for the majority of senators. Now, if the Republicans won’t stand up to the person who is going to do that, I’m not going to. I have tried my best to deal with these issues that have nothing to do with a piece of legislation.

Watch it:

The National Flood Insurance Program helps homeowners whose houses are destroyed by floods — like those that devastated Minnesota and are currently sweeping Florida — and has absolutely nothing to do with abortion or conception.

Along with the outrageous economic ideas the Texas Republican Party has included in its 2012 platform, the state party is also promoting abstinence-only sex education and urging legislators to prohibit reproductive health services — including any “counseling” — in public schools.

In the 23-page document, Texas Republicans lay out their education platform, which includes the opposition of condom distribution because parents should have full control over what “medications” are administered to their children. The document goes on to reaffirm the Texas GOP’s staunch commitment to disproved abstinence-only education programs, according to the platform:

We recognize parental responsibility and authority regarding sex education. We believe that parents must be given an opportunity to review the material prior to giving their consent. We oppose any sex education other than abstinence until marriage.

Abstinence-only programs have been proven to have no real impact on rates of sexual abstinence. On the other hand, an increased understanding of contraception directly correlates to a decrease in young adults’ risky sexual behavior.

And while U.S. teen pregnancy rates are on the steady decline, states with more rigid abstinence-only policies lag behind the national average. Mississippi — where abstinence-only is the state standard — boasts the highest teen pregnancy rate in the country. Contrast that with the state with the lowest rate, New Hampshire, where comprehensive sex education includes information about condoms and contraception.

A 2007 report showed that only about half of the sexually-active high school students in Texas used a condom when last having sex. Texas Republicans’ abstinence-only stance — coupled with the states parental opt-out policy — engenders this massive education gap that results in young people doubting birth control is an effective way to avoid unwanted pregnancy.

(HT: Jessica Luther)

– Steven Perlberg

Tomorrow is National HIV Testing Day, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hopes that easily accessible tests at local pharmacies will encourage greater numbers of Americans to learn their HIV status.

The CDC is rolling out a pilot program to offer free HIV tests in drug stores in cities and rural communities across the country, in addition to the routine medical care like blood pressure checks and flu shots that pharmacies already offer.

Donna McCree, the associate director of health equity for the CDC’s Division of HIV/Aids Prevention, told the Root that the pilot program will deliver critical health services to populations that would otherwise neglect to get tested:

MCCREE: Pharmacies have a vastly untapped potential to deliver HIV testing in settings that are more accessible, and they are less stigmatizing for people who really don’t want to go into STD clinics or health departments to be tested. [...] Our data also tells us that about 30 percent of the U.S. population lives within a 10-minute drive of a retail clinic. So this is our attempt to bring testing to you, where you are.

We are looking forward to seeing what the pilot tells us, and what lessons we will learn, so that we can design a comprehensive toolkit for more pharmacists to use toward implementing HIV testing. That’s the critical first step to ending this epidemic: knowing your status and getting linked to care,” she said. “This is too important to remain in the dark.”

According to the CDC, as many as 20 percent of the estimated 1.1 million Americans who are infected with HIV don’t know that they have the virus. And since it can take more than a decade for an HIV infection to cause visible symptoms and illness, a third of HIV-positive individuals don’t get tested until so late into their infection that they develop AIDS within just one year of their diagnosis.

Researchers have pointed out that increasing access to medical resources like as HIV screenings, substance abuse treatment, and education is the best way to combat rising rates of HIV infection across the country. In some cities in the United States, HIV rates are close to the rates in some African countries — and rates of HIV infection skyrocket among low-income communities. In Washington, DC alone, the infection rate for heterosexual African American women in the city’s poorest neighborhoods nearly doubled over the past two years.

Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, will likely be forced to close if it cannot comply with a restrictive new state law requiring its three doctors to secure hospital admitting privileges. And to make that happen quickly, state Rep. Sam Mims (R), who sponsored the measure wants the clinic to be inspected as soon as the law goes into effect on July 1, according to the Associated Press.

In a letter to the state’s health officer, Mims said there was no reason to delay an inspection:

“I am certainly aware that the Health Facilities Licensure Division is responsible for regulatory and enforcement duties on many types of facilities and does so with a limited number of employees,” Mims wrote in the letter, which he also sent to The Associated Press. “However, as the author of HB1390, this legislation was one of my priorities as chairman of the Public Health and Human Services Committee, and I consider it an important accomplishment.”

July 1 is on a Sunday, when most state government offices are closed. The clinic is also closed on Sundays, according to its website.

Health Department spokesman Liz Sharlot said the clinic could be inspected Monday, July 2.

“We will be inspecting the facility as soon as the law goes into effect to ensure the facility is in compliance,” Sharlot said Friday.

If the clinic is not in compliance with the new law, the Health Department will give it 10 working days to outline how it will meet the law’s requirements. The clinic’s spokeswoman Betty Thompson said the three doctors have applied for privileges at all area hospitals, and Diane Derzis, who owns the clinic, has said she will sue the state if they are unable to comply with the new law.