SALEM – On a party-line vote, an Oregon legislative committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would eliminate non-medical vaccine exemptions for students.

Oregon currently has an estimated 15,500 school-aged children whose parents used non-medical grounds to exempt their children from being vaccinated for contagious diseases including measles and hepatitis B. If the bill becomes law, such children would be barred from attending public or private schools, licensed day cares and preschools. Online schools and home school would be their only option.

All three Republicans on the subcommittee voted no.

“I believe this bill, if it passes the House and the Senate ultimately, truly is the beginning of the death of freedom,” said Sen. Dallas Heard, R-Roseburg. “The majority party has always talked about ‘my body, my choice.’ How can that not apply to my child?”

The Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Services advanced House Bill 3063 to the full Ways and Means Committee, which is scheduled to vote on the bill on Friday. In Salem terms, a Ways & Means subcommittee vote is significant because it usually signals that the bill has enough support to receive affirmative votes on the House and Senate floors.

The committee handles budget matters. The fiscal impact of the bill is relatively small in the context of the overall state budget. The Oregon Health Authority estimates it would cost $100,000 to implement the changes, mostly due to the need to change school computer systems to conform to the new law.

Virtually none of the public testimony during the hearing that preceded the vote touched on the financial impact of the bill, however. Instead, people testified for and against the underlying policy changes.

The measure has sparked several rallies and thousands of emails to lawmakers. Supporters say it’s needed in order to curb the spread of contagious diseases, including measles. Opponents complain that eliminating exemptions for religious or philosophical reasons would force them to choose between vaccinating their children or having to homeschool them.

Before Wednesday’s vote, Republican lawmakers on the panel unsuccessfully offered amendments that would have restored the religious exemption and allowed private schools to opt out entirely.

Another proposed amendment, which was distributed by the office of Sen. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, but never formally introduced, would have required lawmakers who voted for the bill, the governor, and their immediate family members to receive the same vaccinations required for Oregon schoolchildren.

“The amendment was to make a point that legislators in this building aren’t willing to subject themselves or their families to what they are trying to enforce on the public,” Thatcher said in a written statement.

Committee co-chair Rep. Rob Nosse, D-Portland, said the bill is a necessary tool to curb the spread of communicable diseases.

“We don’t experience those kind of illnesses because people have gotten vaccinated,” he said. “And we’re on the cusp of experiencing a moment in time when people are losing faith in that.”

The committee’s other co-chair, Sen. Lee Beyer, D-Springfield, was not as convinced. “I have serious reservations about this bill and will probably be a no on the floor,” he said.

Beyer said he would vote to advance House Bill 3063 to the full Ways and Means Committee as a “courtesy” so that the broader budget panel could discuss it.

Wednesday’s vote is the second time lawmakers have gone on the record on the bill this session. On March 14, the House Health Care Committee voted 7-4 to move the bill to the Ways & Means Committee.

That vote was also along party lines. Democrats hold the majority in both the Oregon House and Senate, but two Republicans, Sen. Chuck Thomsen of Hood River and Rep. Cheri Helt of Bend, are among the sponsors of House Bill 3063. Along with Beyer, at least one Democrat, Sen. Jeff Golden of Ashland, has come out against it.

Oregon isn’t the only northwest state with a push to limit exemptions to school vaccine requirements. In Olympia, lawmakers voted on Tuesday to send a similar bill to Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee, who is expected to sign it.

Oregon and Washington both were impacted by a widespread measles outbreak among unvaccinated children this spring.