Iowa House lawmakers advanced a bill Wednesday that would eliminate vaccine requirements for Iowa students entering elementary or secondary school.
Current law requires that Iowa students are vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, measles and rubella, hepatitis B, varicella and meningitis unless they are granted a medical or religious exemption.
The bill (HF2171) would end that requirement and make Iowa the first state to eliminate its requirement for children to be vaccinated to go to school.
At a subcommittee hearing, Rep. Brooke Boden, R-Indianola, said the exemptions aren’t enough.
"You either really have to have a medical concern or you have to claim that you're religious, and I think that's coercing parents into a situation in which they're not able to utilize their parental right [and] find the right vaccination schedule for their child," Boden said.
Opponents of the bill, which included public health and medical organizations, told lawmakers the requirements are important to reach herd immunity and protect kids who cannot be vaccinated.
"This is the bill that scares them the most about children's health, and I don't think I'm being dramatic about that."Chaney Yeast, a lobbyist for Blank Children's Hospital
The bill is very concerning to pediatricians at Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines, said Chaney Yeast, a lobbyist for the hospital.
"This is the bill that scares them the most about children's health, and I don't think I'm being dramatic about that," she said. "We, in our lifetime, have probably never experienced one of the basic childhood immunization outbreaks."
Rep. Heather Matson, D-Ankeny, said she strongly opposed the bill, calling it "one of the most dangerous pieces of legislation" to come through the Statehouse in recent years.
"Public health matters. This bill is dangerous for our kids, and I don't know why we would be telling families in Iowa that we do not value public health or making sure that their kids are healthy," she said.
The bill comes amid pushback to childhood vaccines at the federal level. Last month, federal officials announced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will drop the number of broadly recommended vaccines down from 17 to 11, instead recommending that parents consult their child's pediatrician to determine if their child should be vaccinated. The change affected vaccines for hepatitis B and meningitis, two of the shots currently required for Iowa children to attend school.
Some experts have pushed back against the CDC's sudden change in guidance, which many states use to set their school vaccine requirements, saying the decision was made without the usual transparency and scientific evidence to support it.
Iowa lawmakers pointed to this recent change as evidence that support for vaccines may be changing.
"Regarding the science settled, I think maybe that deserves a little bit more conversation," said Rep. Helena Hayes, R-Mahaska. "There's a reason why the CDC went from it went from 17 to 11 childhood vaccines. Why is that? I wouldn't exactly say the science is settled."
