Utah governor’s parents fund vaccine effort

The bill’s backers had high hopes. They proposed that Utah spend $1 million for a public education campaign about the risks of cervical cancer and a new vaccine that can prevent it, as well as fund vaccinations for poor, uninsured patients.

But conservatives in the Legislature objected, partly because cervical cancer is spread sexually and they feared that making vaccines available would encourage children to be promiscuous. The program was withdrawn from consideration in early February.

On Wednesday, the billionaire philanthropist parents of the state’s Republican governor announced they would pay for the program with a donation to Utah’s Department of Health.

Jon M. and Karen Huntsman wrote a $1-million check weeks ago but didn’t make an announcement until Wednesday, when a panel met to determine how to implement the program.

Janet Bingham, president of the Huntsman Cancer Foundation in Salt Lake City, said the couple made their decision soon after the proposal died in a legislative committee.

“They would do anything to save a life,” Bingham said.

Jon M. Huntsman, chief executive of the chemicals conglomerate Huntsman Corp., has survived two different cancers. His father, stepmother and mother all died of cancer. Since 1995, he and his wife have donated $225 million to the foundation, a cancer hospital and a research center.

After lawmakers tabled the vaccination program and decided instead to fund a $25,000 information campaign about cervical cancer, Jon Huntsman wrote a note to Utah’s health chief.

“My quest in life and my pledge in death ... is to assist in the eradication of cancer in all its ugly mannerisms, irrespective of cause,” he told Dr. David Sundwall, executive director of the Department of Health.

State Rep. Karen Morgan, a Democrat who sponsored the original program, said she started crying when she heard the news. “I was shocked and thrilled,” she said.

The couple’s son also was pleased. “It’s a very important humanitarian gesture, which we applaud,” said Mike Mower, spokesman for Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.

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nicholas.riccardi@latimes.com