Legislation Details:

UPDATE: 1/3/2024 - A276B carried over and was referred to the Assembly Health Committee on 1/3/2024.

UPDATE: 1/3/2024 - S762A carried over and was referred to the Senate Health Committee on 1/3/2024.

UPDATE: 5/16/2023 - S762A was amended and recommitted to the Senate Health Committee on 5/16/2023. The amended bill expands which practitioners can administer the treatment for minors from licensed physicians and hospital staff physicians to now include physician assistants, nurse practitioners and midwives.

UPDATE: 5/16/2023 - A276B was amended and passed the Assembly Health Committee Meeting on 5/16/2023, by a vote of 16 Ayes, 10 Nays. The amended bill expands which practitioners can administer the treatment for minors from licensed physicians and hospital staff physicians to now include physician assistants, nurse practitioners and midwives.

UPDATE: 5/12/2023 - A276B is scheduled for an Assembly Health Committee Meeting on Tuesday, 5/16/2023 at 10:30 AM in Room 823 LOB. View the agenda HERE. 

UPDATE: 5/5/2023 - A276A is scheduled for an Assembly Health Committee Meeting on Tuesday, 5/9/2023 at 10:00 AM in Room 823 LOB. The agenda is here.

Please contact Committee Members and ask them to OPPOSE A276A.

Assembly Committee on Health Member Contact List
Chair: Assemblymember Amy R. Paulin, (518) 455-5585
Assemblymember Scott Bendett, (518) 455-5777
Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, (518) 455-5385
Assemblymember Jacob Blumencranz, (518) 455-4684
Assemblymember Edward Braunstein, (518) 455-5425
Assemblymember Marjorie Byrnes, (518) 455-5662
Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz, (518) 455-5965
Assemblymember Jarett Gandolfo, (518) 455-4611
Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas, (518) 455-4545
Assemblymember Scott Gray, (518) 455-5545
Assemblymember Aileen M. Gunther, (518) 455-5355
Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi, (518) 455-4926
Assemblymember Josh Jensen, (518) 455-4664
Assemblymember Anna Kelles, (518) 455-5444
Assemblymember Nikki Lucas, (518) 455-5912
Assemblymember John McDonald, (518) 455-4474
Assemblymember David G. McDonough, (518) 455-4633

Assemblymember John Mikulin, (518) 455-5341
Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar, (518) 455-4621
Assemblymember Karines Reyes, (518) 455-5102
Assemblymember Daniel Rosenthal, (518) 455-4404
Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, (518) 455-5802
Assemblymember Nader J. Sayegh, (518) 455-3662
Assemblymember Michaelle Solages, (518) 455-4465
Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest, (518) 455-5325
Assemblymember Phillip Steck, (518) 455-5931

Email addresses for Committee Members:
[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], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

UPDATE: 4/20/2023 - A276A was amended and recommitted to the Assembly Health Committee on 4/20/2023. The amended bill changed "health care practioner" to be more specific to licensed physicians or hospital staff physicians. It was removed as a companion bill to S762 and printed as A276A. NVIC continues to OPPOSE both bills because they allows minors to be vaccinated for STDs without parental knowledge or consent.  A276A confines treatment being to being administered by a licensed physician, or in a hospital, or by a staff physician, while S762 confines treatment being to being administered by a health care practitioner. 

A276 and S762 were introduced and referred to the Assembly Health Committee on 1/4/2023 and 1/6/2023. A276 is sponsored by Assemblywoman Amy Paulin and S762  is sponsored by Senator Elizabeth Krueger. 

These bills would allow a health care practitioner to administer vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases (HPV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis A, and any others added to the recommended schedule) to a minor without the parent or guardian's consent or knowledge.  These bills have been filed each session since 2009 and have failed to move. 

Section 2 (b) A health care practitioner may provide health care related to the prevention of a sexually transmissible disease, including administering vaccines, to a person under the age of eighteen years without the consent or knowledge of the parents or guardians of such person, provided that the person has capacity to consent to the care, without regard to the person's age, and the person consents. 

These bills would take effect immediately upon passage. 

NVIC opposes A276 and S762 because of many reasons, including but not limited to: 

• Current federal law does not support A276 and S762. 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 statements) “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. Currently, all STD vaccinations are listed on the Vaccine Injury Table and allowing minors to consent to vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases without the VIS provided to the parent first would be in violation of federal law.  (Table data below taken from the federal government's HRSA website)

• 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. 
• On March 18, 2022 federal judge Trevor N. McFadden blocked a Washington, D.C. law that allowed children in the nation’s capital to receive a vaccine without parental consent. Judge McFadden concluded that the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) likely preempts the Minor Consent Act (MCA) and that both of the plaintiff parents have shown that the MCA likely violates their Free Exercise rights. The DC Council did not refile this bill.
• Vaccines are pharmaceutical products that carry a risk of injury and death. Minor children may not be aware of family and their own personal history of vaccine reactions or personal contraindications to relay to a health care practitioner. 
• Children and adolescents are vulnerable to peer and authority-figure persuasion. Informed consent includes the full knowledge of the possible risks and benefits. Under the CDC's VIS FAQs, the VIS does NOT qualify as informed consent and is approximately a "10th grade reading level." 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. 
• The legal right of parents to give their informed consent for minor children to take medical risks, which can result in injury or death, trumps the goals of government health agencies or vaccine corporations and medical organizations, whose employees, stockholders, or members profit or professionally benefit from increased, widespread vaccine use. 

https://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&Summary=Y&Actions=Y&term=2023&bn=A276 - text, status and history for A276 

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/s762 - text, status and history for S762