Bill to change school immunization requirement for exemptions heard

Rep. Jennifer Carlson said her bill is simple — she wants full information provided to parents of school children, unlike the ads that say “No shots, no school.”

“That’s just simply not true,” Carlson said.

Carlson, a Republican from Churchill, said schools need to let parents know about exemptions too.

House Bill 715 would require schools to provide information about exemptions when they communicate with parents about vaccination requirements. In Montana, exemptions are allowed for medical reasons or deeply held religious beliefs.

The bill also says people who want to take advantage of an exemption may sign a document stating immunization is contrary to their religious practices, but that document no longer must be notarized.

Ione Young wasn’t sure making it easier to be unvaccinated was a good idea. She recalled her third-grade teacher having to use crutches because of polio.

“I like not having polio,” Young said.

The House passed HB 715 on a 64-33 vote, but the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee had not yet taken action on the bill, according to the legislative tracking website.

However, at the hearing April 5, opponents from the medical field and people who advocate for school children and represent educators testified against it.

Another bill heard this week, Senate Bill 450, would allow exemptions for reasons of religion or “conscience,” which it would classify as a matter of illegal discrimination. It already passed the Senate and was pending in a House committee Friday.

Wednesday in the Senate committee, opponents to HB 715 argued in part that if schools need to require information about exemptions, they should also tell parents about the benefits of vaccines.

And they said giving busy parents an easy way to avoid getting their children vaccinated was risky.

Nick Domitrovich, a lawyer with public health experience, said Montana hasn’t had a measles case in 35 years, but that has a downside.

The state’s success immunizing children against diseases that used to be common means the current generation of parents doesn’t know as much about the dangers of the illnesses.

Add disruptions from the pandemic and “well-funded, coordinated misinformation machines,” and the result is just 62% of Montana children have completed the combined seven-vaccine series, he said.

“We’ve been lucky to avoid the big (outbreaks) here in recent years, but I can guarantee that will happen if we keep weakening this body’s longstanding commitment to the health of Montana’s public school pupils by making it easier to get exemptions,” he said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counts 350 people who die from measles every day around the world. It said those deaths are mostly children.

“One person with measles can infect 12-18 people, making it the most infectious – yet vaccine-preventable – disease,” the CDC said in a data page about global immunization.

Jenny Murnane-Butcher, with MOFE, Montanans Organized For Education, said the state has a responsibility to ensure public schools are safe spaces.

She said cutting the requirement for a notarized affidavit will result in lower vaccination rates in the community, and she pointed out Montana already has seen recent outbreaks of whooping cough and other diseases.

“These were directly due to a reduction in vaccination rates, and parents do not want further avoidable outbreaks in their communities,” said Murnane-Butcher, who also testified against SB450 on behalf of MOFE.

Opponents also included the Montana Medical Association, the Montana Nurses Association, the Montana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Montana Federation of Public Employees.

In questions, Chairman Sen. Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, said he could relate to people of his generation who testified about their childhood experiences when vaccines weren’t as common. However, he said now, children are getting many more vaccines in a single injection, and he wondered if it was safe.

Dr. Lauren Wilson, with the Montana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the vaccine schedule is “rigorously tested” and found to be safe. She pointed to the bottom line about safety.

“As we increase the number of vaccinations that we’re giving, we are saving lives,” Wilson said. “Fewer children die of infectious disease in childhood than they used to.”

No proponents testified at the hearing, but in her closing testimony, Carlson said her bill isn’t about numbers of deaths or costs to society raised by opponents, data she argued were hard to prove.

She said her bill isn’t about vaccine science either.

Rather, Carlson said her bill is about being honest about the requirements of the law.

“We shouldn’t be lying to people to make it easier for them to do what we want — or harder for them to do what’s allowed, is the other way to say that,” Carlson said.

Keila Szpaller is deputy editor of the Daily Montanan, a nonprofit newsroom. To read the article as originally published, click here.