Vaccine Rights: The Legislative Agenda

Vaccine Choice:
The Legislative Agenda

Last updated 5-25-11

The federal government lacks authority to mandate vaccines for state residents directly, so legislation at the state level may be the higher priority for most U.S. citizens. However, important legislative change is needed at both the state and federal level. This list below identifies specific legislative issues. Send inquiries or suggestions for other issues to list here to Attorney Phillips here.

Know Your Rights!

STATE LEGISLATIVE AGENDA
*Many of these issues apply to most states

Emergency Health Laws: Most states can mandate vaccines without exemptions in a declared emergency, and quarantine non-vaccinated persons in government facilities against their will. State residents should have the right to refuse fast-track, emergency vaccines and other medical protocol, and to quarantine in their homes or other lawful locations. Resource: The Pandemic Response Project website.

Resource: The Model Self-Shielding Protection Act drafted by Attorneys Diane Miller of National Health Freedom and Alan Phillips.
Philosophical Exemptions: 30 or more states do not have a philosophical or personal exemption. Please note that states that exemptions may not apply in declared emergencies unless emergency health laws are amended.
Healthcare Employees: Most states have laws requiring healthcare employees to be vaccinated; all healthcare employees have a mandatory vaccines policy. Also needed for college students doing clinical work in college healthcare programs.
Notification of Exemption Rights: Most states are not required to notify citizens of exemption rights whenever announcing exemption requirements. This amounts to the state endorsing one of two or more legal options, and only one of potentially many healthcare industries and modalities.
Outdated Religious Exemption Statutes: Some states require require membership in an organized religion with tenets opposed to immunization requirements to exercise a religious exemption. Similar laws were held to be unconstitutional in state or federal courts in five states.

Resource: See the Vaccine Rights Legislative Projects page.
Children Excluded from School During Outbreaks: Exempt kids have to stay home from school for the incubation period of the disease during an outbreak. 'Outbreak' is defined as anything more than usual--that is, a single disease case. This can result in exempt children being excluded from school repeatedly due to isolated, recurring chicken pox cases. This raises Constitutional and other legal concerns, as non-vaccinated kids are required to stay home, but not vaccinated kids whose vaccines didn't work (as not all vaccines work in all kids!). States should provide alternate school facilities for these students. Sending them home amounts to depriving them of their right to an education due to their parents' exercise of a federal Consitutitonal First Amendment right, the "free exercise" or religion.

Resource: See the Vaccine Rights Legislative Projects page.
Vaccines Administered in Public Schools: Schools around the country administered seasonal and swine flu vaccines in 2009. This year, Denver tested a federal government plan to use schools as vaccine distribution sites. Public schools are not, and should not be made into, public healthcare facilities for dispensing vaccinations.

Resource: “Attorney Questions School Flu Shots”, a Dec 2009 article by Attorney Phillips.
Immunization Registries: Parents should have the right to “opt-out” of immunization registries. Better yet, parents should have to "opt-in" to participate in the first place.
Unethical State Exemption Forms: States are incorporating language into state exemptions forms that appears to be modeled after the American Association of Pediatrics’ Refusal to Vaccinate Form. Parents are being required to sign statements like this one in Michigan’s DCH-0716, Immunization Waiver Form: "By signing this waiver, you acknowledge that you are placing your child and others at risk of serious illness should he or she contract a disease that could have been prevented through proper vaccination." This is erroneous legally and medically, and thus unethical at best. Parents are not “bad” for exercising a legal right granted by the state. Such language should be prohibited in exemption forms.

Resource: See the Vaccine Rights Legislative Projects page, Kansas.
Unethical Pediatric Practices: Pediatricians are increasingly requiring parents to sign the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Refusal to Vaccinate Form. This form contains the statement: “I know that failure to follow the recommendations about vaccination may endanger the health or life of my child and others with which my child might come into contact.” This raises serious ethical and legal questions. Laws need to be enacted prohibiting doctors from using the AAP Refusal to Vaccinate Form or any similar language.

Resource: “Refusal to Vaccinate Forms Raise Ethical Questions”, an article published by Attorney Phillips in The Townsend Letter, available at the Vaccine Rights Articles page.
Pets: There are the same general adverse events concerns with pets as there are for humans. Animals may not have religious or philosophical beliefs, but medical exemptions should be allowed. At the time of the drafting of this page, California has a bill pending to allow a medical exemptions for dogs.

Resource: The Legislation page at the Pandemic Response Project website; click the California link.
Thimerosol-free Vaccines: The “Green Your Vaccine” movement aims to have vaccines produced without the use of the mercury-based preservative thimerosol. However, there are many problematic vaccine ingredients. Some doctors feel aluminum is more dangerous than the mercury. While a laudable goal in concept, a more practical way of addressing the possible adverse effects of toxic vaccine ingredients may be to seek the right to refuse vaccines altogether in lieu of more effective alternatives.

Resource: A Remarkable Successful Use of Homeopathic Prophylaxis (homeopathic immunization) - 2.5 Million Protected in Cuba, January 1, 2009; and Vitamin D better than vaccines at preventing flu, report claims.
Under-18 Requires Parental Consent: Some state laws allow minors to choose whether or not to be vaccinated, without parental consent. Such laws are unconstitutional, since a minor's religion for legal purposes is that of the parents, and a willing 16 year old's parent(s) may object to vaccines on religious grounds. E.g., NC's sec. 90-21.5 allows "Any minor may giveeffective consent to a physician . . . for medical health services for the prevention . . . of venereal disease and other diseases..."