New California Bill Would End Vaccine Exemptions
Joshua Krause
The Daily Sheeple
February 21st, 2015
Despite its notoriety for being one of the least free states in America, California does still have some lingering freedoms in certain regards. Ever since California mandated that all teachers and students be vaccinated against polio in 1961, the state made sure to allow certain exemptions. In fact, California has some of the best vaccine exemption laws. Residents living there are allowed to keep their children vaccine free, for either religious or personal reasons; a status which it shares with 19 other states.
But unfortunately, in California, no individual right can remain untouched forever. After the measles outbreak in Disneyland, the busybody freak show is out in full force, and they want to cull as many vaccination exemptions as they can.
Senate Bill 277 does not specifically address the religious exemption. But if passed as now drafted, the bill would end all “personal belief exemptions,” including religious exemptions, said Sen. Richard Pan, a Sacramento Democrat and pediatrician who co-authored the bill with Sen. Ben Allen, D-Redondo Beach.
“There is no religious exemption in the statute,” Pan told this newspaper Thursday. But he indicated that might change as the debate over the legislation plays out over the next several months. “I’m certainly open to the discussion about the necessity and the nature of any proposed religious exemption.”
That could come through “the legislative process or the governor himself, if he wishes to be engaged early on,” Pan said. “It’s up to him.”
When Pan, then an assemblyman, carried a bill in 2012 aimed at tightening vaccine policy, Gov. Jerry Brown signed it. But he directed state health officials to maintain the ease of religious exemptions.
Asked if Brown believes that the issue of religious exemptions needs to be revisited, Jim Evans, a spokesman for the governor, would only say that “the governor believes that vaccinations are profoundly important and a major public health benefit and any bill that reaches his desk will be closely considered.”
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