Abbott: Parents should be able to opt out of vaccine mandates

Here are the counties where Texas students are refusing to get vaccinated for religious or philosophical reasons. Scroll through the slideshow to see the pattern that develops and pay close attention to Central Texas... less Here are the counties where Texas students are refusing to get vaccinated for religious or philosophical reasons. Scroll through the slideshow to see the pattern that develops and pay close attention to Central ... more Photo: Google Maps Photo: Google Maps Image 1 of / 116 Caption Close Abbott: Parents should be able to opt out of vaccine mandates 1 / 116 Back to Gallery

AUSTIN -- Weighing in on a national debate, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made clear this week that he supports laws that include exemptions to requirements that parents vaccinate their children.

"Abbott recognizes the public health benefits of vaccines and encourages all parents to have their children vaccinated, as he and the First Lady did with their daughter," spokeswoman Amelia Chasse said, but the governor "supports current Texas law that he believes strikes the right balance of requiring vaccinations while still allowing parents to opt out under certain circumstances."

RELATED: More parents, students opting out of vaccines in Texas

That law gives parents the right to opt out if they have religious or personal objections to vaccines, or if they can cite valid medical reasons.

The governor's position pits him opposite a high-profile suggestion that Texas eliminate the religious and personal exemptions in response to several recent outbreaks of measles.

One outbreak in particular, which has been linked to an unvaccinated women at Disneyland, has garnered national attention and opened a debate about whether too many parents are opting out of vaccines due to unproven fears that they cause autism.

The power to cite religious views to object is on the books in 48 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, while the objection on personal beliefs exists in 20 states.

In Texas in the 2013-2014 school year, more than 38,000 students making up roughly 0.75 percent of the state's school-age population used the exemptions, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of data from the Department of State Health Services. That was far higher than a decade earlier, when exemptions were granted to just 3,000 students making up about 0.1 percent of the population, according to the Chronicle.

On Thursday, state Sen. Rodney Ellis filed a bill that would require every Texas public school make publicly available data about its number of students exempted. Currently, such information is available for school districts but not individual schools.

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State Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas, said last week he planned to file a bill to crack down on exemptions to vaccinate mandates, but the idea has not yet gotten much traction.

The chairmen of the state Senate health and education committees told the Chronicle they are not ready to support such legislation.