A series of federal actions aimed at forcing states to allow parents to opt out of school vaccine authorization for religious or personal reasons, which could undermine California’s ban on such exemptions.
California is one of five states that ban any non-medical exemptions, the result of a 2015 law passed after the Disneyland measles outbreak. Connecticut, New York, Maine and West Virginia have similar regulations.
The law attributes the increase in kindergarten vaccination rates in California’s kindergartens to 96.1% in the 2024-25 school year, from 92.6% in 2014-15, even as national interest rates fell. California is Only one of 10 states Measles vaccination rates in kindergartens exceed the threshold of 95%, experts say herd immunity is needed.
If the vaccine mandate is weakened, “we will have more outbreaks and schools will be less secure for families with vulnerable children,” said Dr. Eric Ball, a pediatrician in Orange County. American Academy of Pediatrics California.
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Key measures to allow vaccine exemptions include:
- legislation proposed in Congress last month would withhold federal education funds from states without religious exemptions.
- A letter from the Department of Health and Human Services threatens to withhold federal vaccine funds from states with any form of religious freedom or personal conscience law but does not allow vaccine exemptions. This move is ” Greater efforts Strengthen laws on protecting conscience and religious activities through HHS. ”
- Several lawsuits have tangled their way in the courts of parents, including California, seeking the right to religious immunity, which may eventually come before the Supreme Court.
Legal experts say these moves reveal a consistent effort to raise efforts within states such as California, which gives parents the ability to send uninoculated children to school.
“Every aspect of the administration, at least three Supreme Court justices, and an important factor in Congress are actively trying to implement changes to the law that will invalidate California’s … approach that does not allow non-medical immunity.”
In West Virginia, this approach has proven to be successful. Although the state legislature recently rejected a bill that would allow religious immunity for the first time, Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed an executive order and was supported in a letter of support from HHS.
Vaccinations and syringes at Latchmont Pediatrics, Los Angeles.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
“Vaccination is considered one of the greatest achievements of public health, preventing the spread of serious diseases, reducing hospitalizations and saving lives,” the statement said. “CDPH remains committed to ensuring that all Californians continue to use safe and effective vaccines based on reliable, transparent and scientific evidence.”
The federal action takes place at a time when anti-vaccine feelings grew within the Trump administration. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. As HHS Secretary, he has raised funds for mRNA research to limit COVID-19 shots to older people and those with medical conditions and promises to reveal the link between vaccines and autism.
California on the evolution of vaccine authorization
In 1961, California became one of the earliest states to allow residents to choose a wide range of personal beliefs, part of a law requiring polio vaccines to attend school.
For decades, few parents have chosen a vaccine for non-medical reasons for children taxing about 0.5%.
Pan said the exemption rate began to rise in the mid-2000s when actress Jenny McCarthy appeared on Oprah and claimed that the vaccine caused her son’s autism. “But the fuel that really produces” is the emergence of Facebook and Twitter, Pan said. “Social media does contact the anti-vax and create an echo chamber.”
By the 2013-14 school year, 3.1% of California kindergartens Non-medical exemption for at least one required vaccine is being accepted. The kindergarten’s rate was fully vaccinated with measles, which dropped to 92.3%, much lower than the 95% required for herd immunity.
In 2014, a measles case in Disneyland spread to more than 140 people nationwide, and epidemiologists say the outbreak was Vaccine refusal to boost. At this moment of crisis, Pan introduced SB277, making California a The first state in nearly 35 years Eliminate non-medical vaccine exemptions.
The legislation has been supported by many parents, especially those who are unable to get vaccinated for medical reasons and rely on the immunity of those around them. “The whole purpose of 277 is to really protect the rights and freedoms of the family and their children to obtain an education that is not vaccinated,” Pan said.
Pan said despite the fierce debate, no major religious sects opposed the bill.
“It’s really nothing to do with religion,” Pan said. “It’s about trying to find loopholes or excuses for people who don’t want to get a child.”
Parents say California’s mission violates religious beliefs
A group of parents said their sincere religious beliefs prevented their children from getting vaccinated.
In 2023, Placerville’s Amy and Steve Docher filed a federal lawsuit with two other families against California’s claims that SB277 violated their right to exercise their religion freely by preventing them from sending their 16-year-old daughter to public schools.
Dochers, who attended a church near their home, “who prayed extensively and consulted the Bible when deciding whether to inoculate children, reached a firm religious belief that the vaccine violated their creed.” Complaint filed as part of the lawsuit.
Their daughter is participating in a charter school independent research program and he is unable to “have typical interactions that “normal” children have. This has caused a lot of stigma.”
The lawsuit says her parents had to get her to attend gymnastics classes, spending $10,000 a year on independent learning expenses to make up for the socialization shortcomings caused by SB277. ”
Although the lawsuit was dismissed in June, it is now appealed in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Lawyers in a similar New York lawsuit filed by Amishi’s parents demanded a review by the Supreme Court.
“I do think it’s a cumulative moment of change,” said Christina Hildebrand, president and founder of the advocacy group that sponsors the California litigation.
“If vaccines are so effective and there is no risk involved, then people should want to get them,” she said. “If you have to impose tasks on them, what are the real benefits of the product?”
Wiley of UCLA Law said she sympathizes with sincere religious opponents and can achieve group immunity even if a few people choose to quit. The problem, she said, is that it’s hard for states to have police officers for effectiveness, “It can really be a big drop in vaccination rates.”
Dorit Reiss, a law professor at the University of California, San Francisco, studies vaccines, said religious exemptions are often “used as fig leaves for people with safety issues. The way the system works is that it makes the kindly liar privileged enjoyment.”
As part of her research, she found “the entire industry of helping each other get exemptions”, including those who make sample requests to parents and how to ask for religious exemptions for non-religious reasons.
Re-point Many studies Discovery makes exemptions more widespread and easier to obtain, tending to lead to lower vaccination rates and more outbreaks.
Vaccine authorization volatile landscape
Since the common pandemic KFF’s latest report Nonprofit Health Research Group.
Last week, Florida surgeons announced that the state will no longer require children to be vaccinated in order to attend public schools, which is what all 50 states currently need.
The threat also comes from Washington, DC Acts of grace, Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) introduced in Congress last month will withhold federal education funds from any state that has not provided parents with withdrawal from their vaccines for religious reasons.
The bill, if ultimately approved by President Trump and signed into law, would also explicitly prevent countries, including California, from requiring any documents from parents to prove their sincere religious belief in the vaccine.
“Free speech and religion are the most sacred rights guaranteed under our constitution,” Rep. Steube said in a statement to the Times. “No student or their family should be forced to sacrifice their faith or skip loopholes to comply with the vaccine’s requirements.”
Last week, Kennedy weighed the issue. If a state already has book regulations on protecting religious freedom or personal conscience in any form, then these laws must be extended to vaccine withdrawal. If states with such laws do not comply with the directive, they may lose funds for the federal Child Vaccine Program, which provides vaccines for low-income children.
There are no statues of religious freedom or personal conscience in California. but 29 other states The religious freedom law has been passed, and 18. Have the Parents’ Rights Act, Legal experts say the federal government can use the state to force states to provide vaccines out.
“States have the right to balance public health goals with personal freedom and respect these decisions to build trust,” Kennedy wrote. “Protecting public health and personal freedom is how we restore faith in institutions and make America healthy again.”
Several legal experts say this approach is shocking.
“I’m very worried that it’s part of a script that they’ll push these laws on the state and federal level,” said Richard Hughes, an attorney with Epstein Becker Green in Washington, D.C., who has been studying vaccine laws for two decades. “It’s a huge federal transcendence, and it’s very inappropriate.”
This article is part of the Times Early Childhood Education Program, focusing on learning and development of California children from birth to 5 years of age. For more information about the program and its charitable funders, please go to latimes.com/earlyed.
