A Texas Republican wants to stop parents from using personal or religious objections to get their children out of school immunization requirements.
State Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas, said Friday he will propose legislation on Monday that would eliminate the two exemptions because diseases like measles and whooping cough have been attributed to growing numbers of parents choosing not to vaccinate their children.
"It's so important right now because we're beginning to see the re-emergence of diseases that we haven't seen in decades," he said. "They should have been eradicated many, many years ago."
The move comes after a measles cluster was reported at a day care in Chicago this week and a measles outbreak tied to Disneyland.
"There are cluster outbreaks that have occurred and that has filtrated itself into the population of the public school system. We want to make sure that our kids are protected by ensuring that all children are properly immunized before they go to the public schools."
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Villalba said he's been circulating the two-page bill to eliminate the two exemptions because of personal beliefs or religious grounds and thinks he has enough to support to get it to the governor's desk to make it law before school begins in the fall.
"This is an important measure, this is not about eliminating the civil rights of individuals. We understand there will be objections to this from the religious community and from civil libertarians," Villalba said.
"And we're not saying that we're forcing people to get vaccinations, we're saying that if you want to send your kids to the public schools, we're asking you to get them vaccinated so that they don't end up causing disease in the general public school population."
