Good news: Giving girls Gardasil is not guaranteed to make them slutty. An Emory University study of 1,400 Georgia girls showed that receiving the HPV vaccine — which prevents common strains of the sexual transmitted disease, the leading cause of cervical cancer — at age 11 or 12 did not lead to riskier sexual behavior by the time they were 14 or 15, reports the AP. The study, published in Pediatrics today, found that at least 90 percent of vaccinated and unvaccinated girls did not display any “markers of sexual activity” like seeking pregnancy tests, chlamydia tests, or birth control counseling in the three years after receiving the vaccine. Two in each group became pregnant and chlamydia was diagnosed in one vaccinated girl and three unvaccinated girls. The study did not look at Michele Bachmann’s concern that the vaccine causes mental retardation.
