Grade 8 girls in Halton Catholic schools will now be offered the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in their schools.

Halton Catholic District School Board trustees approved a reversal of a five-year-old ban on the vaccine program at a contentious meeting Tuesday night. Trustees who supported the reversal said parents will retain the right to decide whether their daughters will get the vaccine that will be given by public health nurses.

“No one has to have this vaccination if they don’t want to have it,” said Burlington trustee Arlene Iantomasi. “This is entirely a parental decision, along with the child.”

About 40 opponents of the motion to allow the vaccines expressed loud disapproval, after the recorded vote of nine in favour and two opposed.

“Shame!” a number of them yelled before exiting the chambers. “You are Catholic in name only,” said one man who vowed not to educate his children within the board.

HPV is a common virus spread through sexual activity. It’s the leading cause of cervical cancer and can also cause genital warts and other cancers in both men and women.

Delegates who urged the board to keep the ban argued the vaccine is not safe or effective and that offering it to students violates Catholic values of chastity before marriage.

“If the physical needs of our children become more important than their spiritual needs, it seems to me the Catholic school board has forgotten some of its Catholic responsibilities,” said Burlington resident and Catholic missionary Stephen Norman.

One Whitby mother and daughter appeared before trustees to say the vaccine had caused serious joint pain in the young woman.

The previous board voted in 2008 not to bring the province’s HPV vaccination program into its school. It is the only board among 29 Catholic boards in Ontario and among only a handful in Canada that doesn’t offer the vaccine in its schools.