Anti-vaxxers take fight to Statehouse
Republicans lead push to remove requirement to immunize children against papillomavirus
PROVIDENCE — A group of activists is pushing legislation to remove a requirement that Rhode Island school children receive the HPV vaccine before entering the seventh grade.
Rhode Island and Virginia are the only two states that require school children to get the vaccine that blocks common strains of human papillomavirus, which can lead to certain cancers later in life.
Rhode Island parents can now get an exemption based on religious or medical reasons, but the activists want to further roll back the mandate because the sexually transmitted virus cannot be passed on through normal school activities.
Shawna Lawton of the Rhode Island Alliance for Vaccine Choice said she has been working with state Rep. Justin Price, a Richmond Republican, to intro- duce legislation that would eliminate or weaken the mandate and also limit the authority of the state Department of Health to issue vaccine mandates without public input.
The health department has not blocked children from attending school if their families opt out of the vaccine, but activists worry that the state could use its discretion at any time to enforce the mandate.
Price did not return calls for comment but another lawmaker who plans to co-sponsor the bill said it will be introduced soon.
“The HPV vaccine is not a communicably contagious disease through the air,” said state Rep. Sherry Roberts, a West Greenwich Republican. “These kids shouldn’t be having sexual relations in school, so why should this be mandated? This should be the parents’ choice.”
Roberts said the details of the law are still being determined.
Lawton, who has a daughter in the seventh grade, formed the advocacy group last year after the Cranston school district sent her a notice about the state health department mandate.
The family obtained a religious exemption, but she wants the state to add a “philosophical exemption for people who feel the religious exemption doesn’t fit what they believe.”
About 72.5 percent of Rhode Island seventh graders had received a first dose of HPV vaccine by the first day of school in early September, which the state Department of Health believes to be among the highest rates nationwide.
The state has not enforced the new mandate for families who opt out of the vaccine, and has instructed schools to not ask questions, even if parents do not seek formal exemptions.
“We have been communicating to schools that children should not be excluded based on their HPV vaccination status,” said spokesman Joseph Wendelken of the Department of Health.
Democratic House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello said last year that he would not address the requirement because he was leaving the decision to the state’s health experts.
Most of the lawmakers supporting Lawton’s cause are Republicans. She said her group is also trying to get support from Democrats, which will be necessary for a bill to pass because Democrats hold a supermajority in both chambers of the General Assembly.