By Steven Allen Adams, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — After weeks since its first hearing in the House Health and Human Services Committee, lawmakers removed a proposed religious and philosophical exemption from a bill dealing with West Virginia’s school-age immunization requirements.
The House Health Committee recommended an amended strike-and-insert amendment to Senate Bill 460, relating to vaccine requirements, to the full House Tuesday evening in a 18-7 vote.
SB 460, as it came over from the state Senate on Feb. 21, would have allowed parents and guardians to object to the requirements of the state’s program for compulsory immunization of public and private school children by citing a religious or philosophical belief. The bill passed the Senate in a 20-12 vote with two senators absent.
After the House received the message from the Senate about the bill’s passage, it was referred to the House Health Committee, which held a hearing on the bill on Feb. 24. But after a lengthy committee meeting that went into the evening, the bill was not taken back up for 22 days.