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Alabama legislators are considering two identical good bills prohibiting minor consent to vaccination without written parental consent.
SB 58 and SB 101 amend Alabama law to prohibit unemancipated minors under 18 from consenting to medical, dental, or mental health treatment without written parental or guardian consent, with some exceptions.
This overturns existing law, which allows minors 14+ or those who are married, divorced, pregnant, or high school graduates to consent to care independently. The bills also redefine “medical services” to include vaccines and remove the term “health” from the code.
Minors are often coerced into vaccinations – especially for sexually transmissible diseases. These minors may also feel pressure to consent to vaccination simply because a healthcare provider recommends it for their benefit.
WAPF believes that vaccination decisions should be made by the parent of an unemancipated minor. This person is most familiar with the child’s medical history, family medical background, potential contraindications, and any religious or conscientious objections.
These are part of a larger minor consent bill. WAPF does not take a position on this bill’s provisions that are unrelated to vaccination.
Recommended Improvements:
Remove Paragraph (6) from §22-8-4 (a): This provision allowing unemancipated minors to consent to vaccination under certain conditions is unnecessary. State law already permits emancipated minors to consent to medical treatment, including vaccines. Expanding exceptions creates enforcement challenges, as minors may misrepresent their status, and providers cannot verify eligibility. This puts children at risk of injury and providers at risk of unintentionally violating the law.
Add Penalties for Violations: Establish clear consequences for providers administering vaccines to minors without parental consent. This should include a cause of action for parents whose children were vaccinated without their knowledge and penalties for providers who fail to obtain written consent.
Both bills were reported favorably out of the Senate Children and Youth Health Committee on 2/12/2025. They are now eligible for a Senate floor vote!
Please help us support these important bills today!
TAKE ACTION
Contact your State Senator and urge them to SUPPORT SB 58 and SB 101.
You can enter your address here to look up who represents you (then scroll down to see your legislators listed under “State House District.”)
Calls are more effective than emails and only take a few minutes. Below is a Sample Script, and there are additional Talking Points after the second action item. Use your own words when you call or email – a personal message is always more effective than a form message!
SAMPLE SCRIPT
“My name is ____, and I live in (town). I am calling to ask Senator ____ to support SB 58 and SB 101, which would require written parental consent to vaccination, and to request necessary amendments to strengthen these protections.
Similar to a minor’s inability to consent to other hazardous activities like purchasing tobacco, firearms, or alcohol, granting consent for a vaccine with comparable risks of harm or fatality should also be restricted.
Legislation aimed at protecting minors is warranted, recognizing their potential lack of capacity to conduct a comprehensive risk-benefit analysis before agreeing to vaccination.
As recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court, vaccines are pharmaceutical products that carry the risk of injury or death. It is irresponsible to allow minors the ability to consent to vaccines without parental approval.
Minors lack the capacity to conduct a comprehensive risk-benefit analysis before agreeing to vaccination.
I urge Senator _____to SUPPORT SB 58 and SB 101 with the removal of Paragraph (6) from §22-8-4 (a), which allows certain unemancipated minors to consent to vaccination. There should also be an inclusion of penalties for violations.”
TALKING POINTS
Keep your call or email short! Pick the 2 or 3 talking points—or none of them—that are most important to you and be sure to explain why this issue matters to you personally.
- A child may not know their personal or family medical history, including vaccine reactions, allergies, and autoimmune or neurological disorders, all of which contribute to the chances that they may have a serious reaction to a vaccine.
- Children do not have the same critical thinking skills or emotional maturity as adults to make a vaccine benefit-risk decision. Additionally, children and adolescents are vulnerable to authority-figure persuasion.
- If a child consents to vaccination without their parent knowing and has a reaction, the parent may not recognize the reason for their child’s decline in health, and this lack of knowledge could be life-threatening for the child.
- No one knows in advance whom a vaccine will harm. Each of us may respond differently as we have different medical histories, genes, epigenetics, and microbiomes.
- Many young people have died or become severely injured after receiving HPV vaccines. Allowing minors to consent to these and other vaccines is dangerous and irresponsible.
- Vaccine manufacturers such as Pfizer, Merck, and GlaxoSmithKline have paid billions of dollars in criminal penalties and settlements for research fraud, faking drug safety studies, failing to report safety problems, bribery, kickbacks, and false advertising [1,2]. Pfizer paid $2.3 billion in 2009 alone to resolve criminal and civil allegations [3].
[1] Merck ($2 billion, 2007) – https://www.corp-research.org/merck
[2] GlaxoSmithKline ($3 billion, 2012) – https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/jul/03/glaxosmithkline-fined-bribing-doctors-pharmaceuticals
[3] Pfizer – https://abcnews.go.com/Business/pfizer-fined-23-billion-illegal-marketing-off-label/story?id=8477617
MORE INFORMATION
Read the bills at: https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/files/pdf/SearchableInstruments/2025RS/SB58-int.pdf
https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/files/pdf/SearchableInstruments/2025RS/SB101-int.pdf
Read this article for more information on the dangers of vaccines: https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/vaccines-unsafe-since-the-very-beginning/#gsc.tab=0
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