Correction appended

After three hours of testimony on a bill that would eliminate most vaccine exemptions, 180 people still waited to speak their minds. Nearly all of them were there to oppose House Bill 3063, which the Oregon Legislature has taken up in the midst of one of the largest measles outbreaks the Pacific Northwest has ever seen.

The chairwoman of the House Committee on Health Care prioritized people who had traveled from within Oregon to get to the Capitol, and about 75 people were able to speak. Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Lake Oswego, said that as of the 3 p.m. start time, more than 1,000 written documents had been submitted for the record at such a rapid pace that workers putting the documents online couldn’t keep up.

But this outcry is nothing new to the vaccine debate. Washington’s Legislature saw protests outside the building and also had packed hearing rooms at the first hearing of a similar bill that would eliminate all non-medical exemptions for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

Oregon’s version would get rid of religious and personal or philosophical exemptions for all vaccines, a move intended to boost the state’s vaccination rate.

Oregon and Washington are in the midst of a measles outbreak that has touched five people in Multnomah County and 65 in Clark County. Georgia and Hawaii have both dealt with the effects of the outbreak.

But even for people who haven’t caught the highly contagious virus, the large number of cases has spurred hundreds more people to vaccinate this year than usual years. And it has restarted a long-running debate over whether parents and guardians should be allowed to send their children to school with the risk of exposing other children to measles.

“We cannot allow these easily preventable diseases to damage our state’s children when we have the means to stop them,” said bill co-sponsor Cheri Helt, R-Bend.

She was joined by Democratic Rep. Mitch Greenlick, who represents Portland, and Republican Rep. Chuck Thomsen of Hood River.

They have introduced a bill that never made it past the same committee in 2015.

But this time, they hope that the measles outbreak could spur action.

However, groups that oppose mandatory vaccinations are effective at turning out large crowds to quash these efforts in many states. Oregonians for Medical Freedom, the leading group that opposes vaccinations, was at Thursday night’s hearing, as well as Portland Dr. Paul Thomas, a prominent voice in the anti-vaccination movement.

He told lawmakers that they would create hundreds of cases of autism if they approved the bill. His contention, which was echoed by many others at the hearing, is based on debunked reports that claimed a link between vaccines and autism.

Others framed their argument in the form of “choice” -- that parents will have to choose between a quality education for their children or a shot that they worry could harm their child.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen a bill that endorses vaccine instead of education,” said Rep. Dennis Linthicum, R-Klamath Falls, as he testified against the bill.

Overwhelming scientific consensus supports that vaccines are safe and effective at stopping the spread of deadly and contagious diseases.

Lawmakers who support the bill say that parents can still choose not to vaccinate -- however, they will have to homeschool or find ways for children to go to school online.

Advocates from several hospital systems, such as Oregon Health & Science University and PeaceHealth, as well as the Oregon Education Association, the Oregon Pediatric Society and the Oregon Nurses Association, endorsed the bill.

Parents of children who are undergoing chemotherapy or can’t get vaccinated also came to support the bill.

However, the most passionate pleas came from those who compared their plight to Brown v. Board of Education and Nazi concentration camps, saying that those who choose not to vaccinate their children would be segregated unfairly.

Some said they moved out of California after it passed a similar bill in 2015, and others said they would leave Oregon.

California’s immunity rates rose from almost 93 percent before their law to eliminate exemptions passed to 97 percent in the 2017-18 school year.

“It takes strong public policy to protect the health of everybody,” said Dr. Dana Hargunani, chief medical officer for the Oregon Health Authority.

While people around the state have rushed to get vaccinated this year, she warned that momentum is often lost once the outbreak ends.

“We cannot depend on the ebb and flow of that in decision making,” Hargunani said.

Rep. Cheri Helt, R-Bend, co-sponsored the bill. A previous version of this story misspelled her name.