February 9, 2007

Hawkins Faces Grilling in State Senate
on Pregnancy Warning for HPV Vaccine

Senator Who's Leading Charge to Recall Perry Order
Might Not Vote for Confirmation if Issue Not Addressed

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

The devil is often in the details - and a state senator who's sponsoring legislation to repeal Governor Rick Perry's mandate on the HPV vaccine thinks he's found it in the fine print about the drug that would be used for the immunizations if an executive order requiring them stands.

Merck & Company - the manufacturer of the vaccine that would be given to sixth-grade girls in Texas - warns against using Gardasil on pregnant women.

As a result, State Senator Glenn Hegar wants to know how the Health and Human Services Commission can follow through with Perry's order without knowing whether girls who are inoculated are expecting babies or not. Hegar plans to give HHS Commissioner Albert Hawkins an opportunity to answer that particular question when he appears next week before the Senate Nominations Committee in a confirmation hearing.

The governor selected Hawkins for the job of HHS boss four years ago and recommended that he be allowed to continue in the post for two more years when he re-appointed him this week. But Hegar, a former House member in his first Senate term, has threatened to withhold a vote for Hawkins' confirmation if he fails to give a sufficient answer on the use of the Gardasil vaccine on females who could be pregnant but might not know it.

How would the state be certain that it's not forcing the HPV vaccine on girls who might be pregnant? Would every girl in Texas be forced to submit to a pregnancy test before receiving the Gardasil injections that the governor has ordered them to take? What would that cost - and what would Texans who are already in an uproar over the vaccine mandate think about pregnancy testing as a prerequisite?

Hegar, a Katy Republican, and at least 13 Senate co-sponsors hope to make those kinds of questions irrelevant with a bill that would nullify Perry's mandate on the vaccinations, which the Republican governor ordered as a way to prevent cervical cancer in women who may be exposed to the HPV virus through sexual relations. Hegar and two co-sponsors - Republican State Senators Kevin Eltife of Tyler and Jane Nelson of Lewisville - are all members of the Nominations Committee where Hawkins can expect to be grilled. Nelson chairs the Senate Health and Human Services Committee while Eltife is vice-chairman of the Nominations Committee.

Republican State Reps. Dennis Bonnen of Angleton and Charlie Howard of Sugar Land have filed House bills that are identical to Hegar's Senate legislation. Bonnen's HB 1098 has 59 co-sponsors including four Democrats. Only 25 of the House's 81 Republican members have not signed on to the Bonnen bill so far.

According to Merck, reproduction studies on rats have shown no adverse affects from Gardasil on female fertility or fetuses. But the company acknowledges that it doesn't know yet whether the HPV vaccine can cause harm to a human fetus or affect reproductive capacity when given to pregnant women. Gardasil "should be given to a pregnant woman only if clearly needed," the company says.

Conservatives and others who oppose the Perry vaccine mandate have argued that it could have the effect of condoning sex at an early age by leading girls to think that the government has made it safer. Critics also contend that the order circumvents parental rights. Since the governor issued the order on the vaccine almost one week ago, an increasing number of skeptics have questioned whether Gardasil has been sufficiently tested for possible problems it could cause down the road.

Perry has steadfastly defended the executive order on the Gardasil vaccine in the face of public outrage throughout the week. The governor, however, didn't mention the controversy during a speech Thursday to the Texas Public Policy Foundation.