Mar 13, 2007 5:06 pm US/Central
House Approves Bill To Override Perry HPV Order
AUSTIN (AP) ―
The Texas House approved a bill Tuesday that would keep the human papillomavirus vaccine off the list of required shots for school attendance, tentatively circumventing Gov. Rick Perry's executive order.
The vaccine protects girls against strains of HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that causes most cases of cervical cancer.
Perry's order asked Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Albert Hawkins to adopt rules to vaccinate girls entering the sixth-grade as of September 2008. The order angered lawmakers who said Perry bypassed the legislative process.
The bill adopted Tuesday "will not take away the option for a single girl or a single family in this state to choose to vaccinate a child," said Republican Rep. Dennis Bonnen of Angleton, the lead author of the bill. "It simply says a family must make that choice, not a state government."
The measure, approved 119-21, still needs final approval in the House and approval in the Senate. It's also possible that Perry will veto the legislation.
Perry acknowledged weeks ago that the Legislature has the authority to supersede his mandate. But he has also insisted a requirement is good public policy that will save young women's lives.
Critics argued that the vaccine, called Gardasil, was too new and its effects needed to be further studied before mandating it for Texas school girls. The Food and Drug Administration approved Gardasil last year.
Rep. Jessica Farrar, a Houston Democrat who opposed the effort to moot Perry's order, argued that the legislation would tie the hands of state officials in the future, as more information is known about the safety and effects of the vaccine.
"Pap smears are not enough. We know that there's a segment of the population that are never going to get them in the first place," Farrar said.
On Monday, two prominent lawmakers said Attorney General Greg Abbott told them state health officials are not required to follow Perry's order because it does not carry the weight of law.
Republican Sen. Jane Nelson and Rep. Jim Keffer had asked Abbott to clarify the governor's authority to issue executive orders and the Legislature's ability to overrule them.
With or without Perry's order, state law gives Health and Human Services executive commissioners the authority to require schoolgirls to get the vaccine.
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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