Page 89 - Summer 2019 Journal

to say no—for yourself or your children—should not be decided by the government. Yet this year multiple politicians have sought to penalize parents who say no to vaccines for any reason.
The high-profile attacks began when Ed Day, the county executive of Rockland County, New York, declared a state of emergency in March. He issued an order that minors under the age of eighteen who were not vaccinated with MMR vaccines were not allowed in public spaces for thirty days. That not only meant that the children could not go to school, but that they could not go with their parents to a grocery store, a park or almost anywhere else. Then, in April, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered that anyone who resided or worked within certain zip codes of Brooklyn who had not received the MMR vaccine (or who could not demonstrate serological immunity) must receive the vaccine within forty-eight hours or face a fine of up to one thousand dollars
These two emergency orders were followed by Assembly Bill 2371, which repealed the right to religious exemption from vaccination in New York. The New York legislature rapidly pushed the bill through and Governor Andrew Cuomo signed it on June 13, calling the situation “a public health emergency.” As a result, about twenty-four thousand children in New York who currently attend school with a religious exemption to vaccination will have to get all state-mandated vaccines according to the schedule published by the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices or be homeschooled next year. New York has now joined California, Maine, West Virginia and Mississippi in forcing parents to choose between violating their religious beliefs and educating their children.
On the other coast, the state of Washington passed House Bill 1638, which eliminated the personal belief exemption to the MMR vaccine.
Nevertheless, we have seen many victories this year. The activism efforts of thousands of citizens defeated:
AL HB 592: Would have eliminated the religious exemption to vaccination.
AZ HB 2162: Would have eliminated the personal belief exemption to vaccination, leaving only medical exemptions. CT HB 7005: Would have allowed school nurses to refuse to acknowledge a vaccine exemption.
CT HB 7199: Would have mandateed HPV and menincoccal vaccines for 9th and 12th grade students.
CT SB 858: Would have allowed for administration of HPV and HepB vaccines to minors without parental consent. FL HB 245/SB 356: Would have mandated HPV vaccine.
IL SB 1659: Would have mandated HPV vaccine for 6th grade students.
MN SF 1520: Would have eliminated conscientious belief exemption to vaccination.
MO HB 1075: Would have allowed minors to consent to vaccinations.
MO HB 1225 Would have eliminated the religious belief exemption to vaccination.
HOPEFUL FOR VICTORY IN OREGON
A Portland meeting of Oregon’s Ways and Means Committee elicited massive crowds in late March, with a packed auditorium and two overflow rooms filled to capacity. Many were mothers with children from various public schools and members of the local Russian Mennonite community attending to provide public testimony about the personal and financial impact of House Bill 3063, a bill that would eliminate all non-medical vaccine exemptions in Oregon. The bill would prohibit approximately thirty-one thousand Oregon children who currently have non- medical vaccine exemptions from attending public, private or charter schools unless they get every single vaccine on the state’s childhood vaccine schedule. It is nearly impossible to get a medical exemption in Oregon. Thanks to a walk-out by Re- publican senators, the bill was removed from the voting docket.
Overflow crowd opposes vaccine mandates in Oregon. SUMMER2019 Wise Traditions 87