Disregarding warnings by public health officials, an Arizona legislative panel on Thursday endorsed three bills that critics say will erode immunization coverage among Arizona schoolchildren.

The House Health and Human Services Committee approved all three bills in contentious 5-4 votes that were split along party lines, with Republicans favoring the measures and Democrats voting in opposition.

Several critics pointed out measles outbreaks across the country and said the three bills could make Arizona more vulnerable.

One local doctor said the panel was sending a message of vaccine skepticism even though the science says vaccines are far safer than the diseases they prevent.

"Do we want the next outbreak news story to be in Arizona?" Dr. Steven R. Brown, a family physician in central Phoenix, asked the committee. "As a family physician who cares for the health of our citizens and especially our children, I am disheartened and frightened that this is up for debate. ... Nobody is here to tell the stories of people who are alive and not disabled by vaccine-preventable illness."

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One of the measures — House Bill 2470 — not only expands vaccine exemption categories in Arizona, it gives parents additional leeway by removing the requirement that they sign a state health department form to get a vaccine exemption.

"When a parent only has a government statement that they have to sign in order to qualify for an exemption that they don't agree with, that is coercion. This allows them to either sign that or make their own statement," said committee chairwoman Rep. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, who sponsored all three bills. "We are talking about a policy decision now for parents and we should attribute the best expectations on parents, not the worst."

Two other bills endorsed by the committee Thursday would create more work for physicians. House Bill 2472 requires doctors to offer parents an "antibody titer" blood test to determine whether their child needs a vaccine or is already immune. House Bill 2471 is an informed-consent bill that would give parents information about vaccine ingredients and vaccine risks, including how to file a complaint for vaccine injury.

"These bills, if passed, will undermine our efforts to keep Arizona's children safe and healthy because they would lower the vaccination rates in our communities and increase the risk of community-wide outbreaks," said Dr. Elizabeth McKenna, an East Valley pediatrician affiliated with the Arizona chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. "Arizona's vaccination rates have already fallen to dangerously low levels."

McKenna said no major religion opposes vaccination. She also said that she's been in practice since 1992, does 10 to 12 well-child visits per day and can count on less than five fingers the times she's had a serious vaccine reaction, such as a seizure or a neurological problem.

The antibody titer tests are unreliable and difficult to interpret, she said.

The informed-consent bill, McKenna said, would require physicians to provide an additional 30 pages of information about vaccines. But parents are already receiving complete information about vaccines, she said.

"Providing this book without the proper context and without adequate explanation may confuse and intimidate parents and result in a drop in vaccination rates," she said.

Barto: Bills about freedom, not vaccines

Barto maintains the three bills she sponsored are about parental rights and freedom, and not about making any kind of a judgment on whether vaccines are good or bad.

"We are here to acknowledge vaccines have a place, but it's every parent's individual right to decide the vaccine's place in the child's life," Barto told committee members.

Arizona parents are already allowed to seek non-medical "personal belief" exemptions to vaccinations for schoolchildren in kindergarten through 12th grade. The bill that cleared the committee Thursday would add a "religious belief" exemption.

The bill would expand non-medical vaccine exemptions for preschoolers. Parents of preschoolers are currently allowed to seek non-medical religious belief exemptions. The bill passed Thursday would add the category of "personal belief," too.

Two spoke for an hour about what they called dangers of vaccines

Before the committee heard testimony for and against the three bills, Barto allowed an hour-long presentation from two women — Irene Pi and Elena Pollard — about what they described as the dangers of vaccines and vaccine regulation.

The women wore yellow, as did others at the hearing who were in support of Barto's bills, and said they don't want to be described as anti-vaccine, but as against vaccine injuries.

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Some of the parents cried as they spoke about their children, saying they'd had adverse reactions to vaccines that could have been averted had their physicians been paying more attention to their child's health and the potential for an adverse reaction.

"I understand there are a lot of emotions. However, we are talking about public health," said Rep. Alma Hernandez, a Tucson Democrat who voted against all three bills. "It's very concerning to me. There are many people who will suffer by the decisions we make here on this panel."

Rep. Kelli Butler warns vaccine bills will have 'big public health ramifications'

Rep. Kelli Butler, a Democrat from Phoenix, voted against all three bills.

The informed consent bill is a "giant, giant" government regulation that will be cumbersome on medical providers, she said,

The measure to expand exemptions and change the rules on state vaccine exemption forms is "kind of throwing open a door that is dangerous" and has major public health implications in Arizona, she said.

"This is actually a very big amendment that is going to have big public health ramifications in Arizona and I think the scope has been lost in this conversation," Butler said.

Barto said the bills are about patients and she's upset that some people who choose not to vaccinate their children, or who question vaccines are being bullied.

"We shouldn't have that type of attitude towards one another," she said. "It's not a one size fits all option for every child. ... We need to look at the data, look at the science and recognize that there's research on both sides. That's my aim here, to strike that balance."

Reach the reporter at stephanie.innes@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter @stephanieinnes