Connecticut Representative DebraLee Hovey ’76 champions uncommon causes

Story by Marc Glass; photo courtesy DebraLee Hovey '76

When asked about introducing bill No. 6805, DebraLee Hovey ’76, the ranking Republican on the Connecticut State Legislature’s Select Committee on Children and secretary of the bipartisan National Organization of Women in Government, answers with a somewhat nervous laugh—knowing how her convictions caused a quite a commotion.

“I got everyone’s attention with that one. It was like throwing a match on some kerosene and watching it turn into an inferno. They beat me up pretty badly, but I’m tough,” she says, referring to the withering criticism she received—much of it from members of her own party.

Killed in committee during the 2007 session, Hovey’s bill would have mandated that all girls in Connecticut receive a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine by age 12, thereby inoculating them against the cervical-cancer virus and what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control deems the most common sexually transmitted infection. Her bill captured state and national media attention—and, as a Google search will attest, raised applause and the ire of bloggers galore. The bill may not have made it out of the state’s Education Committee, but she found a receptive international audience in January 2008, when the European Parliament invited her to deliver a keynote address on cervical cancer prevention to some 300 parliament members, physicians, researchers and health-policy staff in Brussels.

Her message? The HPV problem is reaching “crisis proportions.”

“In America, one in four girls under the age of 18 is infected with HPV. With the new vaccines we can—for the first time—prevent or cure a form of cancer,” she says. The obstacles, however, are philosophical and economic—in other words, formidable. Some regard HPV vaccination, especially at such an early age, as tacitly enabling premarital sexual activity without an otherwise inhibiting consequence. And due to widely varying socio-economic circumstances and uneven health insurance coverage only those with means currently get the vaccine. (All the more reason, Hovey argues, to “protect those who cannot protect themselves.")

Opponents have also questioned the financial relationship between pharmaceutical companies and lawmakers who introduce mandatory HPV vaccination legislation. Hovey, who has never taken a campaign contribution from Merck (makers of the HPV vaccine Gardasil), says any suggestion of impropriety is hooey.

“I look at this as an opportunity to protect my constituents,” Hovey, a breast cancer survivor, told the Associated Press in a January 2007 interview. “I find it really distressing that there’s this tendency to be so cynical about all this.”

Hovey says combating HPV requires the same public health policy approach taken with polio eradication: vaccination on what she calls “the herd level.”

“If you have a 100 people and vaccinate 99 of them, the virus won’t spread because the rest of the population can’t incubate the disease,” explains Hovey, who is serving her fourth term as assistant minority leader. “In my mind, it’s irresponsible not to advocate for that kind of public health policy. There’s no reason for another woman to die.”

Now focusing on an educational campaign to halt the spread of HPV through vaccination, Hovey collaborated in the development of Connecticut’s Healthy Teens human-sexuality curriculum, which means lessons on the prevention of sexually transmitted infections are taught statewide. And working with the state’s public health commissioner, she made sure cancer-prevention literature includes information about HPV vaccination.

Cervical cancer prevention isn’t the only thing on Hovey’s docket. The wife of Paul Balsano ’75 and mother also serves on Connecticut’s appropriations and judiciary committees, and was appointed the state’s representative to the Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice. The Connecticut Student Loan Foundation, Milford Rape Crisis Center and Connecticut Zoological Society are but a few organizations that claim her as a board member.

Then there’s her education career. After majoring in special education at UMF and earning a master’s in special education at USM, Hovey taught for several years before starting Educational Consultants for Effective Learning. Representing clients throughout New England, she advocates for families with “learning divergent” children (“not learning disabled,” she chides) to ensure they receive the best “free and appropriate public education” under P.L. 94-142, the 1975 Federal Education for All Handicapped Children Act.

Her teaching and consulting experience has shaped the next bit of business on her legislative agenda: improving services to children and young adults with autism. “Connecticut is the second richest state in the U.S.,” she explains. “We’re also second from the bottom in how we provide services to children with autism.”

And she says, once adults with autism turn 21, they face a lack of support for transitioning to work, society and independent living. The current situation is “really a crime,” she says. “I’ll fight the battle to make sure our systems provide quality education this population needs.”

Asked which role—legislator, educator, organizational leader or consultant—best defines her, Hovey says she doesn’t have a single identity. “That’s purposeful on my part. I grew up in a family that encouraged community service, and my grandmother always said, ‘You need to leave your mark on the world,’” says the Presque Isle native. “I’ve never been good at doing things in a small way.”