The Colorado House passed one of the legislative session’s most contentious bills Saturday afternoon, but it still has a tough road ahead before General Assembly adjourns next Friday.

House Bill 1312 would create a standard exemption form for parents and guardians who want to exempt their children from immunizations for school.

Parents who choose not to vaccinate their children have testified at the Capitol that they see that as an intrusion by government into their relationship with their child.

Supporters say collecting data is a necessity to track how many children are immunized in the wake of measles outbreaks across the country. The goal also is to increase participation by reducing the number of people who skip vaccinations out of convenience.

Exemptions otherwise remain unchanged for those who want to exempt their children for medical reasons or personal beliefs. 

“Make no mistake: We have a problem in this state,” said state Rep. Kyle Mullica, D-Northglenn, the bill’s sponsor.

He said the experts he talked to said the state’s poor accountability on vaccination rates makes it risk of an outbreak “like a puddle of gasoline waiting for a match to be thrown on it.” 

Mullica, a nurse, said every exemption the state currently allows remains in place in his bill. 

After a month of long and contentious debates in the House, the bill got a 39-20 sendoff Saturday. The only Democrat to vote against it was Rep. Brianna Titone, D-Arvada.

To become law, the bill still has to make it through the state Senate — where Democrats hold a narrower majority — in under a week.

Democrats behind the bill also must appease Gov. Jared Polis, who has expressed concerns about the bill and suggested he might not sign it because the measure would require parents to obtain the form in person from a local health department — which might require a long drive in rural parts of the state — or from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The bill will need at least one committee hearing, and in the House testimony took 14 hours. And when the bill made it to the House floor, lawmakers debated until the early hours of the morning.

> RELATED: Bill to increase childhood vaccination in Colorado passes House committee

The Senate has a crowded itinerary for the next week, but the bill might be too hot to die on the calendar. It’s sponsored in the Senate by Sens. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver, and Kevin Priola, R-Henderson.

Republicans tried to stall the bill Saturday, including a failed motion to route the bill to the House Education Committee, since it involves schools.

“This bill has really been amazing for how politically charged it’s been,” said Rep. Shane Sandridge, R-Colorado Springs.

He and other Republicans said they wouldn’t breach the right of parents to make unfettered decisions concerning their children.

“This is a God-given right we have to protect with all our being,” said Rep. Rod Pelton, R-Cheyenne Wells.

Rep. Tim Geitner, R-Falcon, said compiling such a database of those with exemptions is risky.

“[House Bill] 1312 says, ‘Go ahead, exempt your kids. We’re going to know where you are, we’re going to know your name, we’re going to know what you’re exempt from. And there is zero reassurance that information won’t be stored, shared, passed on or breached.'”