Despite the numerous scientists and medical professionals who’ve publicly let Michele Bachmann know that the HPV vaccine has been extensively studied and is not dangerous (beyond the small risks associated with all vaccines), Bachmann is still pushing her false claim that the vaccine “ravages” children: Michele Bachmann: HPV Vaccine ‘Ravages’ Girls.

Michele Bachmann is still defending her opposition to the vaccine that prevents HPV, the leading cause of cervical cancer. At a campaign event in Sheldon, Iowa on Monday night, she sympathized with a mother who believes her daughter Jessica, now 16, has been debilitated by headaches, pains and seizures brought on by the vaccine three years ago and can no longer attend school.

“Michele, on behalf of myself and a lot of other mothers that have a child that’s sick from the Gardasil vaccine, I would like to thank you for the attention that you brought to it,” Julie Wepple said, according to the Des Moines Register.

Bachmann thanked Wepple for bringing up the vaccine issue. “Parents have to make that decision for their kids because it isn’t the schools that are going to follow up with Jessica,” she said. “It isn’t the schools that live with Jessica every day. It’s Jessica who’s having to have her body live with the ravages of this vaccine.”

Bachmann no longer has the excuse of ignorance for promoting this fear-mongering rubbish. She’s doing it because her advisers believe it plays well to the GOP base. The cynicism is remarkable; Bachmann will put the health of American children at risk for a few more votes.