Virginia's House of Delegates passed a bill last Friday repealing the state requirement that girls receive the human papilloma virus [HPV] vaccination to prevent cervical cancer before the sixth grade.

The vote was a small victory for citizens concerned that the state mandated law encourages casual premarital sex and usurps parental rights. For the new Republican majority in the Virginia General Assembly, it was another chance advance its conservative agenda through the House and Senate .

The issue arose in 2006 when the National Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices issued a recommendation for the vaccination of 11 to 12-year-olds. In 2007, then-Gov. Tim Kaine amended the legislation to allow parents to opt their children out of the requirement.

"'Opt-out' is never a choice for parents in my mind because there are too many times that the parents really are not aware," Del. Kathy Byron, the bill's sponsor, said. "The best choice is to leave it entirely with the parents and not have government get in the middle of it."

Since 2007, the National Conference of State Legislatures reports, at least 41 states and Washington, D.C. have proposed legislation regarding the HPV vaccine. Some legislation required mandatory school vaccinations.

Professor Lynne Marie Kohm, Professor of Family Law at Regent University School of Law, said the opt-out option is a lot of effort. "If you don't want your child to have the vaccine," she said, "you shouldn't be forced to go through hoops."

The vote came just as the federal Centers for Disease Control recommended last week that boys aged 11 and 12 also receive HPV vaccinations.

Kohm is one of many conservatives who think that because HPV is spread through sexual contact, the vaccine promotes casual premarital sex and usurps parental rights. She said that society should empower parents to be good parents, not the state. "We want to empower parents to empower kids to make good decisions," she said. "The mandate relieves kids of the opportunity to make good decisions."

However Del. Chris Stolle, a gynecologist and the lone Republican dissenter on the Health Welfare and Institutions Committee, pointed out that 6.2 million women contract the virus annually. Of those 6.2 million, 10,000 women develop cervical cancer and about 4,000 die.

"We mandate a whole slew of immunizations for our children…and we don't leave it up to the parents," Stolle said. "What's the difference between HPV and these other things that we mandate?"

Byron said that while other viruses are spread through casual contact, HPV is spread through sexual intercourse. Influenza kills people every year, she said, but the state has never mandated flu shots.

Stolle proposed an amendment to the repeal that would require state health officials to continue to give parents information about a vaccine to prevent a virus that can lead to cervical cancer.

"This amendment in no way does any harm to this bill," Stolle said. "This amendment just ensures parents continue to receive information about a vaccine for an illness that affects 6.2 million young women each year."

The amendment was rejected by the Virginia House of Delegates last Thursday.

"It is not our responsibility to become an advertising agency for the drug companies," Byron said after urging fellow lawmakers to reject the amendment.

Stolle's amendment was rejected by the House, but the bill that would repeal the state mandated law was not. Byron's bill now goes to the GOP-controlled Senate, where similar legislation died last year when Democrats controlled the chamber.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.