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DENVER (AP) — Mandatory vaccination opponents have helped defeat a Colorado proposal to start a database tracking children who haven't been immunized.
The state House backed off the proposed database Monday, when it was scheduled for a vote. The legislative maneuver means the database proposal is dead for the year.
Democratic sponsors had enough support to steer the database through the House. But the proposal faced certain death in the GOP Senate, where some Republicans complain the state Health Department has already overreached by contacting parents about their children's immunizations.
"The public health of Colorado was not enough to convince opponents of the bill," said Rep. Dan Pabon, a Denver Democrat who proposed the database. "The politics around the 'I word,' or immunizations, just got to be too intense."
The proposal opened an emotional debate about Colorado's low vaccination rates. Colorado is one of 20 states that allow parents to claim any kind of personal opposition to required immunizations, and vaccine rates for some diseases are among the nation's lowest.
Colorado passed a law two years ago to have schools report vaccination rates. But for one in five Colorado kindergarteners, there was no immunization information on record for the 2014-15 school year.
The failure of the vaccine database bill makes Colorado one of only three states with no central tracking of childhood immunizations, Pabon said.
Republicans say they don't oppose vaccines, but they found the database proposal intrusive.
"It has to do with what authority the state has over parents" who object to vaccines, said Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud. "A lot of parents don't disagree necessarily with all vaccinations. But they do disagree with the volume and schedule of vaccinations."
The state Health Department has taken down a website that some parents said improperly sought vaccination exemption information. Some accused the agency of trying to set up a database without legislative clearance, something the agency insisted wasn't true.
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Online:
House Bill 1164: http://bit.ly/1YCG5UV
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