Dear Alabama NVIC Advocacy Team Members,  

We need your help to pass a good bill protecting children’s and parental rights in Alabama.

HB 165 is scheduled for a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on 3/20/2025 at 1:30 PM in Room 200. View the hearing Agenda HERE.  

HB 165 was already heard where testimony was taken on 3/6/2024, but a vote was not taken.  The hearing on 3/20/2024 will be for a vote.

HB 165, worthy of SUPPORT, prohibits an unemancipated minor from consenting to vaccination without the written consent of a parent or legal guardian.

This bill is needed because current law in Alabama (Code of Alabama §22-8-4) lets minor children ages 14 and up consent to vaccines on their own!

Here is how you can help!

ACTION NEEDED: 

1) Contact the members of the House Judiciary Committee by email or phone and ask them to SUPPORT HB 165.

Please see committee contact information and suggested talking points below.

2) Contact your own Alabama Representative and Senator and ask them to SUPPORT HB 165.  

To find your legislators, login to the NVIC Advocacy Portal at http://NVICAdvocacy.org. Click on the red button on the homepage that says “GO TO MY STATE” or “My State” on the STATE TEAMS tab. Your personal state legislators are listed at the bottom of the page. You can click on your legislators’ names to get phone numbers, emails, and even links to their social media to connect with them. You can also find your state legislators on the Alabama Legislative site at this link: https://pluralpolicy.com/find-your-legislator/.

Please see committee contact information and suggested talking points below.

3) Please share this action alert with family and friends.  

You can forward this email or share this link by text or social media: https://nvicadvocacy.org/members/State-Teams/My-State/Action-Alert-Details-Alt/itemid/4001/State/AL?Page=True  

4) Sign up to get NVIC’s Alabama Heads Up text alerts  

Text “Alabama” to 202-618-5488. 

5) Login to the NVIC Advocacy Portal OFTEN and check for updates on your state page: http://NVICAdvocacy.org  

We review bills and make updates daily. Bills can change many times over the legislative process and your timely visits, calls, and emails directed at the correct legislators are critical to this process. 

EMAIL CONTACT LIST FOR the House Judiciary Committee (copy and paste these addresses into your “To” field): 

[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

PHONE CONTACT LIST FOR the House Judiciary Committee

Chair Representative Jim Hill, (334) 261-0494

Vice Chair Representative Tim Wadsworth, (205) 300-4008

Representative Christopher England, (334) 261-0503

Representative Cynthia Almond, (334) 261-0558

Representative Russell Bedsole, (334) 261-0491

Representative Prince Chestnut, (334) 261-0598

Representative David Faulkner, (334) 261-0442

Representative Patrice McClammy, (334) 261-0580

Representative Phillip Pettus, (334) 261-0591

Representative Ben Robbins, (334) 261-0477

Representative Matt Simpson, (334) 261-0424

Representative David Standridge, (334) 261-0446

Representative Jerry Starnes, (334) 261-0499

Representative Shane Stringer, (334) 261-0594

Representative Ontario Tillman, (334) 261-0529 

TALKING POINTS (It helps to personalize the reasons how this legislation affects you and why it is important): 

·         Support HB 165 because it protects a minor child from being pressured to taking a vaccine that carries a risk of injury and even death without parental knowledge or consent. Current law allows children 14 and up to consent to vaccines on their own.

·         A minor may not have the ability to fully evaluate the risks and benefits of taking a pharmaceutical product and may not be aware of any past reactions and contraindications to vaccination in their medical history or their family medical history.

·         A minor child is vulnerable to being pressured to consent to vaccination by a health care provider, teacher, school nurse, extended family member, or friend. 

·         Every parent should have the protected right to refuse a vaccine for their child without coercion, harassment, or penalty without someone undermining or circumventing that decision behind their backs.

·         Parents love their children and want what is best for them; they know their children better than anybody.  Parents should be in charge of their children’s medical decisions. There are already laws in place to protect the rare exception of a child who should be removed from parental custody.

 ADDITIONAL SUPPORTIVE BACKGROUND

·         Current federal law does not support minor consent. As required under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, every time a healthcare provider administers a vaccine listed on the Vaccine Injury Table, they must provide a VIS (vaccine information statement) “to the legal representatives of any child or to any other individual to whom such provider intends to administer such vaccine." [42 U.S.C. §300aa-26(d)]. The CDC provides instructions for using VISs including this federal requirement and confirms that there is a requirement that their Vaccine Information Statement (VIS) is provided to the parent/legal guardian PRIOR to vaccination of a minor child. These requirements under federal law for a parent to be educated with CDC materials prior to their minor child being vaccinated will not be met if a child is allowed to make these decisions on their own without the knowledge or consent of their parent. 

·         If an injury manifests soon after administration of a vaccine, “the vaccine is presumed to have caused the injury and the child is entitled to compensation, unless the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)] can prove an alternative cause of injury.” If the injury manifests later, then the petitioner must prove causation. A minor cannot be a petitioner [42 U.S.C. § 300aa11(b)(1)(A)] and instead, the minor’s legal representative must petition on the minor’s behalf. If a vaccination is given without the consent or knowledge of the parents or guardians of such person, this could disqualify a minor from being able to qualify for compensation since more than 90% of all vaccine injury claims are “non-table injuries” and require proof of causation. If a minor consents to vaccination without parental knowledge and has a reaction, the parent may not recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and the reason for the child's sudden personality change and decline in physical, mental, or emotional health. This lack of knowledge could be life threatening for the child and may prevent the parent from seeking immediate medical care. 

·         Children do not have the same level of critical thinking skills and emotional skills required to make a well-informed vaccine benefit-risk decision as compared to an adult. There is scientific evidence that the physical, mental, and emotional development of children, including adolescents, varies and is often not sufficient to enable children to make well-reasoned decisions about risk taking involving their health and well-being. Without the parent or guardian's informed consent, a health care practitioner may not have access to both familial and individual history of the minor to effectively provide informed medical care and could feel entitled to coerce the minor into consenting to vaccination with the rationalization that they believe it is in the minor's "best interest." 

·         Under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, Congress gave partial liability protection to vaccine manufacturers and then added an amendment giving vaccine administrators liability protection from vaccine injury lawsuits in 1987. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court judges in Bruesewitz et al v. Wyeth et al effectively removed all remaining liability from vaccine manufacturers. Today, pharmaceutical companies making and selling vaccines and doctors and other vaccine administrators have no legal accountability or financial liability in civil court when a mandated vaccine causes permanent injury or death. Children consenting to vaccination on their own are not likely to understand the legal ramifications if they are injured. 

·         Parents are legally accountable and financially responsible for the healthcare and education of a minor child. If their child experiences a vaccine reaction and becomes chronically ill or disabled, there is no legal or financial liability for their health care practitioner. 

Sincerely, 

The NVIC Advocacy Team 
National Vaccine Information Center 
http://NVIC.org and http://NVICAdvocacy.org 
https://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Members/ContactUs.aspx 

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