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Newsroom |
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The News
Your Florida Family Policy Council (FFPC) is often
in the center of the pro-family
debate in this state and involved with the most
recent issues that are important to
you. The following are some recent news clips of
FFPC’s involvement which has made the news.
 | |  | Cervical cancer vaccine bill stalls in Florida House | | The Ledger - March 20, 2007 | | | David Royse | | Nearly every member of a House panel said Tuesday that getting more girls vaccinated against the virus that causes cervical cancer is something lawmakers should do. Yet a measure that would do that stalled in the committee, the victim of disagreement about how far the state should go to accomplish it.
The split came between lawmakers who said the government should do everything it can to make families aware of the virus and the vaccine that can now prevent it, and those who said government should go further and do everything possible to make sure girls actually get vaccinated.
The House Education K-12 Committee was considering two competing amendments to the bill (HB 561). One by Rep. Ed Homan would have required schools to send information about the vaccine to the families of sixth-grade girls starting in the fall of 2009. A couple years later, school enrollment would be contingent on girls showing that they've either been vaccinated, or that their families didn't want them to receive the vaccine.
The second amendment would have only required that schools make information available about the disease to the families of young girls sooner - this coming school year. It had no requirement for getting vaccinated, however.
That proposal, sponsored by Rep. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, failed on a 4-4 tie vote in the committee.
Before Homan's proposal could come up for a vote, Flores, the committee chairwoman, pulled the bill from the agenda Tuesday. Because the bill must receive approval from Flores' committee to get to the House floor, it's chances are now in doubt. A similar bill in the Senate (SB 660) is scheduled to get its first committee hearing later this week.
The new vaccine against the human papillomavirus is being touted by scientists as a wonder drug that could dramatically reduce the incidence of cervical cancer. Federal officials estimate one in four U.S. women ages 14 to 59 is infected with the sexually transmitted virus that in some forms can cause the cancer.
But HPV is spread almost entirely by sexual contact - which has some parents uneasy about requiring it for such young girls. Some say they want to explain sexually transmitted diseases to their daughters on their own timetable. Proponents say the vaccine has to be given young, before girls are sexually active.
Melanie Toohey of Crystal River said if she'd heard a couple years ago about the vaccine, she never would have considered getting her young daughter vaccinated.
But the 47-year-old homemaker spent most of the last year in the hospital fighting cervical cancer.
"Now, I swear to God, every child should get this vaccine," Toohey told the committee. "All you have to do is vaccinate them like the chicken pox? Aw, come on. Who wouldn't give them the vaccination?"
But it should be up to individual families, said representatives of church and family groups.
"The parents of Florida want to retain the right to make medical decisions of this nature for their children," said Nathan Dunn, vice president of the Florida Family Policy Council.
Homan argued his bill wouldn't take away that choice from families - it would only force them choose either to vaccinate or not and let the schools know what they've decided.
"What is required is that parents make a choice," said Homan, a Republican, and an orthopedic surgeon from Tampa.
Even if the Legislature does nothing, the state Department of Health can write rules on its own about which vaccinations students must have, and could do so for the new HPV vaccine.
But it usually doesn't add new vaccines right away to the list of those required, preferring to wait until a vaccine has been used a while to see if it has safety or effectiveness problems, said Charles Alexander, an administrator at the agency.
That's part of the reason the decision about the vaccine should be left up to families, said Flores.
"This vaccine is just too new," she said.
But Flores said she thinks the vaccine is a good thing, and that education that would have been required by her amendment would end up with more girls being vaccinated.
"The numbers of families who have actively made the decision that they want to vaccinate their daughters will go from whatever it is now to 400, 500 percent of what it is," Flores said.
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