Bill barring HPV vaccine mandate approved by Senate committee

A Senate committee signed off on a bill on Tuesday that would bar state health officials from following Gov. Rick Perry's order requiring schoolgirls to be vaccinated against a cancer-causing sexually transmitted disease.

The bill was overwhelmingly approved by the Texas House last month and could be considered by the full Senate as early as next week.

Perry made national headlines in February when he issued an executive order directing state health officials to require the HPV vaccine for girls starting sixth grade as of September 2008.

Merck & Co.'s Gardasil, the only HPV vaccine on the market, protects girls and women against strains of the virus that cause most cases of cervical cancer and genital warts.

Perry's order outraged lawmakers from both parties and much of his social conservative base, who questioned the vaccine's safety and efficacy and said the mandate intrudes too far into families' lives.

The bill approved by the House would permanently prohibit the state from adding the HPV vaccine to the list of shots required for school attendance. The Senate's version of the ban would expire in 2011 under the bill the committee approved Tuesday.

Sen. Glenn Hegar, a Katy Republican who is sponsoring the bill in the Senate, said he believes parents should be able to decide whether to vaccinate the daughters.

But he said the Legislature should revisit the issue down the road, when they have more information about the risks and benefits of the vaccine.

"I think it's appropriate that we have that discussion and we as legislators try and make that decision," Hegar said.

Republican Rep. Dennis Bonnen, who sponsored the bill in the House, said he supports Hegar's change.

Before the vote, lawmakers heard testimony from parents, doctors and other advocates for and against the vaccine mandate.

Nan McAdams, a 70-year-old great-grandmother from Abilene, said she believes all girls and women between 9 and 26 should be required to get the vaccine. Gardasil is approved for females in that age range.

McAdams, who worked as a radiation therapist for 14 years, said she vividly remembers the young women she helped treat for cervical cancer.

"Please help us stop these tragedies, for you never know when it could strike someone you love," McAdams told the committee.

But Caroline Davis, of Round Rock, said she should have the freedom to make her own decision about vaccinating her 11-year-old daughter.

"If you administer this vaccine to my daughter and then we find a problem, you cannot take it back," she said. "It is in her system and that worries me."

Perry has not said whether he will veto the bill if it reaches his desk. The Legislature can override a gubernatorial veto with a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate. The House bill was passed by an even larger margin than that.

On Tuesday, Perry noted that his order included an opt-out provision for parents who don't want to vaccinate their children.

"I hope that the focus will be on those young women who will lose their lives if the Texas legislators do not allow for this vaccination to go forward," he said.

The Senate committee also passed two bills aimed at educating children, parents, doctors and the public about the virus, the vaccine and cervical cancer.

They would require state health officials to put together a brochure about the virus, the vaccine and cervical cancer to be distributed in schools, doctor's offices, health clinics and hospitals. The information would also be available online.

One of the bills originally would have imposed a requirement similar to Perry's mandate, but its sponsor, Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, said she realized it would be politically impossible to do that now.

source:www.chron.com