🖨️ Print post
Massachusetts’s legislators are currently considering several bad vaccine bills and we need you to speak up.
Recently we told you about H.2411, which would eliminate the religious belief exemption for vaccines required for school. We need your continued efforts to stop this terrible bill!
We’re also asking for your help in opposing S.1517/H.2271, which would severely restrict existing religious belief and medical vaccine exemptions. If these bills become law:
* religious and medical exemptions would need to be submitted for approval yearly to the health department,
* private programs could choose to refuse to recognize religious exemptions,
* the health department would publish vaccination and exemption rates annually, and, worst of all,
* minors would be allowed to receive vaccines without parental consent or knowledge.
Please help us protect the rights of students while also ensuring parents are allowed to continue to make sound medical decisions for their children!
TAKE ACTION:
- Contact your Massachusetts State Representative today and ask him or her to OPPOSE H.B. 2411 and H. 2271.
- Contact your Massachusetts State Senator and ask him or her to OPPOSE S. 1517.
You can find out who represents you at: https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator
Calls are more effective than emails, and only take a few minutes. If you call outside office hours, leave a voice mail.
Sample script for action #1: Calls to Your Representative
“Hi, my name is ____ and I am a constituent. I am calling to ask Representative ____ to OPPOSE H. 2411 and H.2271, both of which unnecessarily and improperly restrict vaccine exemptions.
H. 2411 eliminates the religious exemption. But religious freedom is one of our fundamental rights. Whether it is because of the use of aborted fetal tissue or for any other religious reason, individual religious views on vaccines need to be respected.
H. 2271 not only imposes new limits on exemptions, but allows minors to consent to vaccination without parental knowledge. This creates improper risks for our youth. As declared by the U.S. Supreme Court, vaccines are pharmaceutical products that carry risk of injury or death. It is irresponsible to allow children to make medical decisions that may injure or kill them without the knowledge of their parents.
The vaccination rate is currently at 96.1%. There is no reason to restrict exemptions or eliminate parental involvement in the decision as to whether to vaccinate.
I urge Representative _____ to oppose H. 2411 and H. 2271.”
Sample script for action #2: Calls to your Senator
Sample script:
“Hi, my name is ____ and I am a constituent. I am calling to ask Senator ___ to OPPOSE S.1517.
This bill not only improperly restricts the religious and medical exemption, but effectively guts parental involvement in the decision as to whether to vaccinate by allowing minors to consent to vaccines without parental consent.
As declared by the U.S. Supreme Court, vaccines are pharmaceutical products that carry risk of injury or death. It is irresponsible to allow children to make medical decisions that may injure or kill them without the knowledge of their parents.
The U.S. Federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has awarded over 4 billion dollars to vaccine victims. And the true numbers of injuries are undoubtedly much higher, since it is estimated that two out of three plaintiffs are turned away and the FDA says less than 1 percent of all vaccine injuries are ever reported in the first place.
Minor children may not be aware of family medical histories, and even their own young childhood history of vaccine reactions, which would be relevant to deciding if a particular vaccine’s risks outweigh the benefits.
I urge Senator _______ to oppose this bill.
Be sure to explain why this issue is important to you. You may wish to use a couple of the talking points below. Don’t copy all of them – just use them as ideas to help structure your own message.
TALKING POINTS for calls and emails:
- The Massachusetts vaccination rate is currently at 96.1% for the 7 vaccines surveyed by the CDC. There is no need to make the exemptions more restrictive. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6640a3.htm
- Many vaccines are made using aborted fetal tissue. This article shows one of the world’s leading authorities on vaccination describing the use of 3-month-old aborted fetuses in vaccine research. https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/worlds-leading-authority-on-vaccines-details-the-use-of-aborted-babies-in-vaccines-while-under-oath/
- The “public health” is not a compelling reason to override religious freedom when it comes to vaccines because unvaccinated individuals do not threaten others’ health any more than vaccinated individuals. In fact, vaccinated individuals can pose greater risk to public health due to a process known as shedding. Scientific evidence demonstrates that individuals vaccinated with live virus vaccines such as MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), rotavirus, chicken pox, shingles and influenza can shed the virus for many weeks or months afterwards. https://www.westonaprice.org/studies-show-that-vaccinated-individuals-spread-disease/
- The US Supreme Court recognizes vaccines to be “unavoidably unsafe” and to cause injury and death in some recipients. The US Government has paid out approximately $4.4 billion to the victims of vaccine injury. Hundreds of thousands have reported an adverse reaction to vaccination to VAERS. http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/ensuringsafety/monitoring/vaers/
- Vaccine makers and the healthcare providers who administer them bear zero liability for vaccine injuries and deaths.
- By consenting to a vaccine, a child is also consenting a shortened statute of limitations for any claim of injury under the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program – presumably with little or no understanding of what that means. It is also much less likely vaccine reactions will be recognized and connected to the vaccine by a child on their own and filed with the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.
- The U.S. Supreme Court has an entrenched history of protecting the right of parents to direct the care and upbringing of their children. A governing body must prove that infringement on the parents’ liberty is essential to fulfill a compelling interest and is the least restrictive means of fulfilling this state interest. Simply proving the regulation is reasonable is not sufficient.
MORE INFORMATION
Read this article: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/10/opinion/school-vaccination-requirements-may-lead-other-health-disparities/
View H. 2411 here: https://malegislature.gov/Bills/192/H2411/BillHistory
View S.1517/H.2271 here: https://malegislature.gov/Bills/192/SD1499
https://malegislature.gov/Bills/192/HD2403
Note that the bill’s language does not mention minors being able to get vaccines without parental consent. It achieves that end by adding the word “prevention” to section 12F of Chapter 112, which deals with emergency treatment of minors. The current law allows minors to give consent for medical care without parental knowledge if they are in the military, married, pregnant, or living independently from their parents. It also allows minors to consent to diagnosis or treatment of diseases to which they have been exposed – and these bills add “prevention”, which would mean vaccination.
Check out this excellent Boston Globe Opinion piece about these bills: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/10/opinion/school-vaccination-requirements-may-lead-other-health-disparities/
🖨️ Print post
Leave a Reply