PHOENIX — The sponsor of three bills aimed at altering state vaccination laws said Thursday that her proposals are misunderstood.
Rep. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, said nothing in any of the measures that is designed to convince parents to opt out of state requirements to inoculate children as a condition of sending them to child care or public school. Instead, she said, it simply provides information that parents need to make those decisions.
Barto’s comments come a day after Gov. Doug Ducey said he would veto any measure he believes will result in fewer children getting immunized against a host of diseases. The governor never addressed the specifics of the three measures that await a House floor vote.
But Ducey, with his comments, aligned himself with medical professionals who testified last month that much of what Barto is pushing — and what cleared the House Committee on Health and Human Services — would deter parents from vaccinating their children. And that, they warned, would endanger overall public health.
Barto sidestepped a separate question by the Arizona Capitol Times about whether Ducey misunderstood her bills.
Instead she said there has been an hesitancy to see a connection between vaccinations and “terrible outcomes” for some children who have been inoculated. And Barto said parents who do not believe vaccines are safe should be “spared” from the requirements.
“And they shouldn’t be treated like second-class citizens for using their constitutionally protected right to not be forced to undergo vaccinations,” she said. “We’re headed in that direction.”
It isn’t just Barto who fears the option for parents to refuse inoculations could evaporate.
Also Thursday, Rep. Kelly Townsend, R-Mesa, said she fears efforts by the government to force parents to administer vaccines. Townsend, who has a daughter whose epilepsy she links to childhood immunizations, said she has the ultimate right to refuse to vaccinate the girl’s younger brother.
“The idea that we force someone to give up their liberty for the sake of the collective is not based on American values but rather Communist,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
Townsend did not back down when questioned about the comments by Capitol Media Services.
“My son’s body is sovereign,” she said.
“The line for me is the government does not have authority to inject him with something and put him at risk,” Townsend said. “That’s my line.”
And she dismissed the question of whether by not vaccinating her son against communicable diseases she puts at risk other children who cannot be immunized for medical reasons.
“Who’s more important, my son’s health or the potential (of) contracting measles which may or may not be fatal?” Townsend asked. “We are sovereign and ought to be able to make that decision.”
