The Montana House has narrowly approved an updated list of mandatory vaccinations for Montana school students; even though the Senate rejected the House’s attempt to add an exemption for "personal beliefs."
Billings Representative Kathy Kelker, a Democrat, said states that allow children to go unvaccinated because of their parents’ "personal beliefs" have seen tragic results.
"The states who have had it, particularly California, are the ones where we now see outbreaks of epidemics of childhood diseases, the most recent being measles."
The federal Centers for Disease Control says at least 173 people nationwide have been infected with measles since an outbreak started in California just after Christmas. But Representative Nick Schwaderer says the "personal exemption" was not added to the bill to appease vaccination opponents. He says it was added because the current religious exemption is out-of-date and unfair.
"Anybody of any faith gets an exemption whenever they want, but the atheists are excluded. I don’t think this is equal protection under the law, and I think putting personal belief in there updated this law where we’ve got some really old, clunky, wrong code."
The bill survived a 51 to 49 vote, and is now one vote away from going to the Governor’s desk. It adds chicken pox to the list of diseases for which school children must be immunized.