March 13, 2007, 5:03PM
TX House Votes to Override Vaccine Order


By APRIL CASTRO Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press


AUSTIN — 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.

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, but the 119 voters that approved the bill Tuesday are more than enough to override a veto.

Perry's order asked Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Albert Hawkins to adopt rules to vaccinate all girls entering the sixth-grade as of September 2008. Parents could have refused the shots for their daughters.

Perry's chief of staff met with key aides about the new vaccine on the same day its manufacturer donated money to his campaign, The Associated Press reported in February.

A calendar for chief of staff Deirdre Delisi obtained under Texas' open records laws shows she met with the governor's budget director and three members of his office for an "HPV Vaccine for Children Briefing" on Oct. 16. That same day, Merck & Co.'s political action committee donated $5,000 to Perry and a total of $5,000 to eight state lawmakers.

A spokeswoman for Perry estimated only 25 percent of young women in Texas would get the vaccine if it is not required.

"Governor Perry's executive order on HPV would help to protect 95 percent of young women in Texas against the strains of HPV that cause cervical cancer," said spokeswoman Krista Moody. "The governor believes we should protect as many young women as possible _ rich and poor, insured and uninsured _ while maintaining parents' rights to opt their daughter out of receiving the vaccine."

Perry's order angered lawmakers who said the governor circumvented 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."

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 schoolgirls. The Food and Drug Administration approved Gardasil last year.

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.

Cervical cancer can usually be prevented if precancerous cervical lesions are found by a Pap test and removed. Doctors recommend women get Pap tests once a year, but about half of the women in the U.S. who develop cervical cancer have never had a Pap test, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

___

The measure is HB 1098.



http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4626405.html





March 12, 2007, 7:24PM
HPV order does not carry weight of law, Abbott tells lawmakers


By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press


AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry's anti-cancer vaccine order does not carry the weight of law and state health officials are not required to follow it, two prominent lawmakers said Monday after meeting with Attorney General Greg Abbott.

Abbott's informal opinion comes a day before the Texas House is scheduled to vote on a bill that would bar state officials from requiring the human papillomavirus vaccine for school attendance.

Lawmakers were outraged in early February when Perry issued an executive order directing the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to adopt a rule requiring the vaccine for girls entering the sixth grade as of September 2008.

The vaccine protects girls against strains of HPV that cause most cases of cervical cancer.

Days after Perry issued the order, Republican Sen. Jane Nelson, of Lewisville, and Rep. Jim Keffer, of Eastland, asked Abbott to clarify the governor's authority to issue executive orders and the Legislature's ability to overrule them.

Nelson said she and Keffer met with Abbott on Thursday and he told them the order "was more like a suggestion to the head of the agency."

Abbott spokesman Jerry Strickland said the attorney general's office does not discuss the content or substance of its discussions with lawmakers.

The governor acknowledged weeks ago that the Legislature has the authority to supersede his mandate. But he has also insisted the requirement is good public policy that will save young women's lives.

"Because Gov. Perry's executive order is consistent with current law, nothing has been issued today that in any way alters the governor's directive," Perry spokesman Robert Black said in a Monday statement.

Some conservatives have said the order contradicts Texas' abstinence-only sex education policies and strays too far into families' lives. Others have balked at the $360 cost for the vaccine, called Gardasil, and questioned the vaccine's efficacy and safety.

With or without Perry's order, state law gives Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Albert Hawkins the authority to require schoolgirls to get the vaccine. Opponents of the mandate have argued that it would be difficult for Hawkins to defy Perry since he's appointed by the governor.

The bill the House is set to debate on Tuesday would add a sentence to the existing law stating that the HPV vaccine is not required for school attendance. With 93 co-sponsors, the proposal is almost sure to pass. An identical bill has been filed in the Senate.

Black said 65 percent fewer women will be vaccinated if lawmakers make the shots optional.

"While some would make this debate about the separation of powers, it is about saving lives," he said in the statement.

Nelson, chairwoman of the Senate health and human services committee, said her committee will hear several bills about the HPV vaccine, including one that would institute a requirement similar to the one Perry has sought.

In the month since Perry issued the order, lawmakers in Virginia and New Mexico have approved similar requirements. The governors of both states have said they will sign the bills into law.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/4623490.html



March 13, 2007, 1:08PM
HPV Notification Passes Wa. House


By JENNIFER BYRD Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press


OLYMPIA, Wash. — The Washington state House has voted to require that all schools in the state provide information about a sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer and about a vaccine to protect against it.



http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4625529.html



March 12, 2007, 10:15PM
N.M. lawmakers approve cancer vaccine


By MATT MYGATT Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico is on the verge of becoming the latest state to require sixth-grade girls to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer, a spokesman for the governor said Monday.



http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/4623956.html



why can't they just _offer_ them for free, instead of the executive order ???

heck, even the manufacturer of the vaccine saw the writing on the wall of what the 'executive order' of perry's was doing, why can't the Governer ???


TSS