California's vaccine bill clears State Assembly

California's State Assembly voted 46 to 30 on Thursday to pass a bill aiming to mandate immunization for students at public schools.

The proposed law allows parents to opt for immunization requirements for diseases like measles, mumps and rubella, citing serious health issues.

The bill cleared the State Senate by a vote of 25 to 10 in May. But it needs to go through the Senate again for approval of amendments made by the Assembly before the measure is sent to Governor Jerry Brown, who is expected to sign it into a law.

A measles outbreak that started at Disneyland in Orange County, California, in December prompted lawmakers in the Golden State to promote the bill on the ground that mandatory vaccination would protect public health by achieving what is known as "herd immunity" against the spread of disease.

However, some critics argued that the requirements would remove parents' ability to decide which vaccines their children receive.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics indicated that 173 people in 21 states and the District of Columbia developed measles this year and 117 of the cases were linked to Disneyland.

State Senator Richard Pan, a pediatrician who co-authors the bill, said in an earlier statement that "years of anti-science, anti-vaccine misinformation have taken its toll on immunization rates to the point that the public is now in danger."

If the measure becomes law, California would join Mississippi and West Virginia as the only states with such strict vaccine requirements.

Similar efforts by state legislatures in Oregon and Washington failed in March. Endi