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Senate amends and passes cervical cancer prevention bill focused on education
Summary
Senate adopted amendments to second substitute House Bill 358 to make it an education-focused cervical cancer prevention measure, adding language on abstinence/fidelity and removing an appropriations section because funding exists elsewhere; bill passed and was returned to the House.
The Utah Senate considered second substitute House Bill 358 on cervical cancer prevention and adopted two floor amendments before passing the bill and returning it to the House.
Senator Dayton described the bill as having been refocused from a vaccination directive into an education and public-awareness measure. Under Amendment 1 (adopted on the floor) the public awareness campaign must include information that "abstinence before and fidelity after marriage [is] the surest prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, including the human papillomavirus," and the amendment requested a "complete list of side effects and risks discovered during the drug trials" for any vaccine developed to prevent cervical cancer. Amendment 3 removed the bill's appropriations language after sponsors said the funding was provided elsewhere.
Both amendments were adopted on voice votes with no floor opposition recorded to the motions, and the Senate later adopted the bill under suspension of the rules. The clerk announced the roll-call: second substitute House Bill 358 had received 24 yea votes, 0 nay votes, and 5 absent and would be returned to the House for further action.
Next steps: the bill returns to the House for further action and enrollment; sponsors indicated the bill is now principally an education and public-awareness measure rather than a mandatory vaccination directive.
