Oregon Senate Democrats have caved to Republican demands to drop a controversial mandatory school vaccination bill. The bill would have made Oregan the toughest mandatory vaccine state in the country.
Democrats backed off of House Bill 3063 as a way to motivate Republicans to come back to the Capitol. Last week, Republicans left the Capitol as a way to deny Democrats a quorum in protest of a $2 billion tax package for schools.
The deal doesn’t just stop with the controversial vaccine bill but extends to stopping a series of firearm regulations as well, according to The Lund Report.
House Bill 3063 would have completely removed non-medical exemptions for kids attending public schools and state licensed daycares. The bill’s authors leveraged Clark County’s recent measles outbreak as the main reason to pass the “common sense vaccine bill.” The bill would have stopped parents from receiving religious or philosophical exemptions. This means children would have had to receive the full state-approved vaccine schedule.
The move denies Oregon Gov. Kate Brown her place in following Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s bill that removes non-medical exemptions for the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine.
“HB 3063 was about saving lives, protecting children+ensuring shared immunity from dangerous/preventable diseases,” Rep. Cheri Helt, R-Bend, co-sponsor of the bill, wrote. “Disappointing that the loudest/most extreme voices in our politics prevailed+the sensible-center/thoughtful policy-making lost.”
Supporters say the latest turn of events means that parents in Oregon maintain medical freedom.