Perry made misleading statement on lobbying on HPV vaccine

By Shira Schoenberg, Globe Correspondent

Texas Governor Rick Perry was forced to defend himself again in Thursday night’s debate about an executive order he signed requiring girls to get vaccinated against the HPV virus, a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cervical cancer. Perry has acknowledged that he should have gone through the Legislature, and pointed out that the order did have a provision allowing parents to opt out of giving their daughters the vaccine. But in the debate, Perry gave another reason for signing the order:

“I got lobbied on this issue,” he said. “I got lobbied by a 31-year-old young lady who had stage 4 cervical cancer. I spent a lot of time with her. She came by my office, talked to me about the program.”

Yet, and others have pointed out that the woman, Heather Burcham, actually met Perry after he signed the order on Feb. 2, 2007. A Perry spokesman told CNN that Burcham did testify on behalf of the initiative, and Perry and Burcham developed a friendship because of those efforts. The Houston Chronicle similarly reported that Burcham got involved three weeks after Perry signed the order, when the Legislature was trying to rescind the order. Perry invited her to a friend’s ranch, and later spoke at Burcham’s memorial service, the Chronicle reported.

The Legislature overturned Perry’s order in April 2007, and Perry did not veto the bill. The Perry campaign did not respond to a request for information today.

The bottom line is while Burcham may have influenced Perry during the legislative process, it was only after he signed the order.