A bill that would end a state mandate for girls to receive vaccinations against a virus that can lead to cervical cancer later sailed through a Republican-dominated House committee on a largely partisan vote.

Del. Kathy Byron criticized the current law under which parents or guardians opt girls out of receiving the vaccine.

She said it should be up to parents and doctors whether to decide whether girls get the vaccine against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus before they reach sixth grade.

Del. Chris Stolle of Virginia Beach, a gynecologist and the lone Republican dissenter on the Health Welfare and Institutions Committee, noted that nothing requires parents to act to keep their daughters from being vaccinated.