Along with vaccines for such childhood diseases as measles and chicken pox, girls would need to be vaccinated before they enter the seventh grade against a sexually transmitted virus that can cause cancer, if a bill that was debated Tuesday in the Capitol were to become law.

A legislative committee delayed a vote on the matter Tuesday, but Southwest County lawmakers have lined up solidly against it. A Riverside County Office of Education official said Tuesday that regional educators don't have enough information yet about the bill's pros and cons to take a stand.

"It's too early to say," said Cami Berry, director of the safe schools unit for the Riverside County Office of Education.

Temecula attorney Richard Ackerman was one of several conservative activists who testified against AB 16 as the Assembly Health Committee reviewed the bill Tuesday.

In an interview, Ackerman cited several reasons why he and other local conservatives are opposed to the bill, calling it an invasion of privacy, and saying that it would force inappropriate conversations among parents and their young daughters.

He also said there haven't been any long-term tests of the vaccine, Gardasil, and that it would create a false sense of security in young women, possibly giving them a green light to have sex.

State Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth and Assemblymen Kevin Jeffries and John Benoit, all of whom represent parts of Southwest County, are also opposed to the idea of mandating the vaccine.

"It sends up red flags for me on whether this is someplace the government should be going," Benoit said.

Current state law mandates a list of vaccines all students need to attend school, including ones for the measles, hepatitis and polio. The bill, if approved, would prohibit a girl from entering seventh grade at any public or private school after July 1, 2009, if she had not received the vaccine for the human papillomavirus, also known as HPV.

There is an "opt-out" clause in the bill for parents if it violates their beliefs. But critics of the bill contend that in similar cases, such as current vaccine requirements and sexual education, most parents don't realize they can object to such mandates, and that school officials rarely volunteer that information -- or run parents through the ringer if they try to protest.

The human papillomavirus has more than 100 different strains, more than 30 of which are sexually transmitted, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The virus can infect the genital area of men and women, and "most people who become infected … will not have any symptoms and will clear the infection on their own," the health department states.

But some strains lead to genital warts or cancer in men and women, the department states.

The proposed bill states that according to California health officials there is no way to determine the number of new infections every year, but that studies show it's on the rise. Officials estimate there are about 900,000 girls and women age 14 to 24 in the state infected with one of the virus' strains. An estimated 4,000 nationwide die from HPV-associated cervical cancer each year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The vaccine the bill requires be administered, Gardasil, protects against four strains of the virus that most often causes cancer or warts, according to the company manufacturing it, Merck & Co. Inc. It is given in three injections over six months, with each dose costing $120.

Benoit questioned whether the state can afford a new mandate, noting that while many families may need to foot the bill for the vaccine, low-income ones would have the cost subsidized by the state. He said the proposal would probably need to pass an appropriations committee before it went any further. Analysts have yet to determine exactly how much the requirement could cost the state.

"There are many steps along the way where this can be derailed," Benoit said.

California is one of 18 states considering legislation to mandate the vaccine, but Texas is the only one to require it. Tuesday's debate in Sacramento coincided with Texas lawmakers approving a bill to revoke their law, tentatively circumventing an executive order from Gov. Rick Perry.

The Virginia and New Mexico legislatures have approved similar bills to mandate the vaccine, and the governors of those states have promised to sign them.

Locally, parents and educators said they are waiting to see how things play out in Sacramento.

Like county education officials, the state's PTA is in a "watch" mode, noting in a memo to its members that "future amendments to the bill and more information on the length of immunity provided by the vaccine, side effects and cost" could mean the association might finally take a stand.

The bill was authored by Assemblyman Ed Hernandez, D-La Puente, who states on his Web site that "we can eliminate the single largest cause of cervical cancer for thousands of women, just by making the new vaccine a part of California's existing school immunization programs."

During Tuesday's debate in Sacramento, Jenny Biller, an obstetrician and gynecologist from the University of California, Davis Medical Center, testified for the bill, saying the vaccine was "almost 98 to 100 percent effective."

But the Assembly committee put off voting on it. Hernandez requested the delay after opponents voiced concerns.

"There was obviously a lot of discussion and debate," Hernandez said after the committee held a roughly hourlong hearing on the bill. "I wanted to make sure I address all of the concerns of members and bring it back for a vote in April."

Vince Hall, spokesman for Planned Parenthood of Riverside and San Diego Counties, said that while his organization has not taken an official stance on the bill yet, there are many positives to it.

He said concerns that it forces parents to have "that conversation" with their daughter are unimpressive.

"If you are avoiding a discussion of sexuality with your children, you are making a tragic mistake," he said. "The birds and the bees are not a one-time chat, it is a lifelong dialogue. Time and time again it has been proven that burying your head in the sand doesn't work."

- The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Jennifer Kabbany at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2625, or jkabbany@californian.com.