INDIANAPOLIS - The proposed tightening of the state’s abortion restrictions comes during the same legislative session that Indiana lawmakers have rejected efforts to raise the vaccination rate for an infection linked to cervical cancer and review learning guidelines for health and sex education in Indiana schools.
One of the proposals set a goal that by 2020 Indiana would achieve a vaccination rate for HPV of 80 percent for 13 to 15 year olds. The bill’s author, state Rep. Sue Errington, stressed no mandate for vaccination was required.
But Gov. Mike Pence said since the human papillomavirus, or HPV, dealt with a vaccination against a sexually transmitted virus, it’s a “matter better left to parents in consultation with their doctors.”
Pence said he heard concerns establishing the 80 percent goal could put Indiana on the “path toward a mandate.”
Errington, a Muncie Democrat, said the public is ahead of lawmakers on a lot of issues, and the HPV vaccination is one of them.
“Part of it must be not understanding that this infection is so prevalent or maybe not having heard enough times that there is a vaccine to prevent the infection if you get it early enough,” Errington said.
Separately, state Sen. Jean Breaux, an Indianapolis Democrat, carried a bill that failed in committee to provide for the Indiana State Department of Health and the Indiana Department of Education to review and identify standards for health and sex education in Hoosier schools and present their findings to the General Assembly.
Breaux said her proposal had bipartisan support, especially among women in the General Assembly, but opposition from religious groups galvanized against the bill.
Of the supporters, Breaux said she was “grateful they recognize this is an issue we should be concerned about and not so willing to bury our heads in the sand on and confront this head on to reduce the number of young people engaging in sex and then getting pregnant or diseases.”