By Steven Allen Adams, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — After a three-day delay, the West Virginia Senate approved Friday a bill to allow parents and guardians to cite religious or philosophical concerns to get out of the state’s mandatory immunization requirements for school-age children, but not without bipartisan opposition.
Senate Bill 460, relating to vaccine requirements, passed the Senate Friday morning in a 20-12 vote with two senators absent. The bill now crosses the hall to the House of Delegates for review.
SB 460, introduced on behalf of Gov. Patrick Morrisey, would allow 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.
“I want to make it clear no one is taking away anybody’s vaccines,” said Senate Health and Human Resources Committee Chairwoman Laura Wakim Chapman. “I think vaccines are safe, they do prevent disease, and I encourage everybody to get vaccinated unless somebody has a religious or philosophical issue to it. Simple as that…I know of no person in this body who is anti-vaccination, but there are real harms being done by our law as currently written and this bill is done to fix those harms.”
