2014 State Vaccine Legislation in America: Battle Lines Are Drawn & Your Participation is Needed!
Posted on NVIC: 2/11/2014
By Dawn Richardson, NVIC Director of Advocacy

Vaccine related legislative activity in states across the country is at an all time high in 2014. The National Vaccine Information Center has been busy monitoring the bills filed in different states and analyzing them for their potential impact on vaccine freedom of choice.

The NVIC Advocacy Portal (NVICAP) is already tracking 58 bills across 24 states. With many bill filing deadlines weeks away, and several upcoming opportunities for amendments on other proposed measures, we expect the number of bills needing grassroots support or opposition to continue to rise.

Battle Lines Being Drawn in States

In 2014, the battle lines are being drawn in the states between those, who want to force citizens to use every federally recommended vaccine and those, who respect and value the legal right to exercise informed consent to medical risk-taking, including vaccine risk-taking. Your participation and action is urgently needed to defend the human right to exercise informed consent to vaccine risk taking in America and push back the Pharma-Medical Trade-Government Health lobby working hard to eliminate or restrict legal vaccine exemptions.

Along with actions you can take in your state to support good legislation or help defeat bad legislation, bill information is being posted on the NVIC Advocacy Portal. It is very important that you take the time to register for this free communication and vaccine choice advocacy network so you can stay informed and get involved.

Education or Marketing and Coercion?

The lines between “education,” marketing and coercion are getting blurred. Public health officials are joining with lobbyists working for pharmaceutical companies and medical trade associations to pressure state legislators to pass bills that require “vaccine education” and signatures of doctors or other state-designed health workers in order for parents to file non-medical exemptions to vaccination for their children to attend daycare or school. Pregnant women are also a target population. For example, both AL SB 294 (Alabama) and PA HB 1567 (Pennsylvania) require expectant parents to receive information about the pertussis vaccine.

Some proposed legislation this year goes so far as to require schools to provide vaccine education programs for children and parents, which is effectively turning our schools into marketing departments for vaccine manufacturers. AL SB 75 (Alabama) and NY A 3703/S 2070 (New York) would require schools to provide meningococcal vaccine education/promotion, while GA HB 162 requires schools in Georgia to educate the parents of sixth-graders about why their children should get HPV vaccine.

Turning Schools into Vaccine Delivery Clinics

Some state legislators are not satisfied with creating school-based vaccine marketing and “education” programs, they want to bring vaccines to children in schools and turn our schools into vaccine delivery clinics. Several states are proposing to set up school- based vaccination clinics, including Pennsylvania (PA SB 251) where state health officials would be authorized to give flu vaccines to kids while they are attending school and SC HB 3236 (South Carolina) that will give the green light to state health officials to give the HPV vaccine to girls entering seventh grade while in school.

Other state legislators want to require schools to post their vaccination rates in the town square. Vermont Senator Kevin Mullin, who unsuccessfully attempted to remove the state’s philosophical vaccine exemption in 2012, is proposing a bill (VT S 194) to require schools and child care facilities to publically post their specific vaccination rates.

Get Vaccinated or Get Fired
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