Social issues such as abortion and gay marriage were almost entirely absent from last night’s Republican Presidential debate, but that didn’t stop some candidates from flexing their anti-choice muscles — in this case over the vaccine to prevent HPV.

Via Huffington Post:

Rick Perry has taken some heat for his executive order mandating young girls to be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, the most common sexually transmitted disease and the principal cause of cervical cancer.

He has since walked back that order, saying that instead of an executive order, he should have created a program that allowed young girls to opt-in.

Ron Paul, a medical doctor, said forcing girls to take the vaccine was “not good medicine.” “It’s not good social policy,” he said.

Michele Bachmann said it was up to parents to make that decision and that governments shouldn’t do it.

Mitt Romney also said he believes in parental rights and responsibilities, and while he disagreed with the way Perry went about mandating the vaccine — through executive order, rather than through legislation — he believed the governor’s heart was in the right place.

I will never understand why anti-choice advocates want to eliminate abortion and birth control pills because they believe they cause breast cancer, but demand their daughters never be exposed to the HPV vaccine that could prevent cervical cancer.