California lawmakers on Wednesday approved a bill barring most parents from opting out of vaccinations for children enrolled in school, voting after a nearly four-hour emotional hearing that saw multiple people ejected for shouting over legislators.

The final vote was 6-2, with Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, and Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, opposing. The Senate Health Committee chair, Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-Azusa , abstained. The measure faces several more committee hearings before a potential Senate floor vote.

Conceived in response to recent outbreaks of diseases such as measles and whooping cough, Senate Bill 277 removes the "personal belief exemption" allowing California parents to enroll kids in school without having them receive the prescribed range of shots. Doctors and public health officials warn that climbing rates of exemptions threaten to undo the "herd immunity" protecting people who are too young or ill to be vaccinated.

"If it were just a decision about their child, I think you would find no quarrel with having a right to make that decision," said Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel, but "you're making a choice not just for your child, not just for your family, but a choice that affects another person's child."

Source: sacbee.com