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UPDATE: 3/5/2024 - HB 1510 died, it failed to be scheduled for a hearing in the House Public Health and Human Services Committee before the deadline to be reported of 3/5/2024.
HB 1510 was introduced in the House and referred to the House Public Health and Human Services Committee on 2/19/2024. This bill is sponsored by Representative Carolyn Crawford.
HB 1510 adds a religious exemption option to school vaccine attendance requirements for a child whose parents object to vaccination in writing due to vaccination conflicting with their religious tenets and practices. This religious exemption is offered without the exceptions attached to existing medical exemptions, including the acceptance of the exemption by the local health officer.
HB 1510 amends Mississippi Code of 1972 §41-23-37, related to the immunization practices for control of vaccine preventable diseases and school attendance by unvaccinated children under the Public Health Code, to renumber the section into paragraphs with new language in paragraph (8) that adds an exception from the requirements of this section for a child whose parents objects in writing to the administration of a vaccine due to their religious tenets or practices. This paragraph (8) adds a religious exemption option to this existing section of code that allows for a certificate of medical exemption from vaccination from a child's physician for medical contraindications to vaccination in renumbered subparagraph (3) (a). Additionally, the religious exemption provided for in paragraph (8) is not subject to the approval of the local health officer as compared to the existing code in subparagraph (3) (a) that requires a medical exemption to vaccination to be subject to the acceptance of the local health officer if, in his opinion, such exemption will not cause undue risk to the community.
If passed, HB 1510 becomes effective on July 1, 2024.
NVIC SUPPORTS HB 1510 because it protects the right of the parent to refuse a vaccine for their child if it conflicts with their religious "tenets or practices" without any unnecessary interference, harassment, or penalty from the state or any political subdivisions of the state, like the local health officer. Recently, a federal court has ruled that the First Amendment of the US Constitution requires that the State of Mississippi afford its residents a religious exemption for their children to attend school without one or more state mandated vaccines by July 15, 2023. This bill would codify into law the current religious vaccine exemption process initiated by the Mississippi State Board of Health in response to the federal court ruling. NVIC opposes all vaccine mandates and supports informed consent to vaccination, which includes the right to refuse a vaccine without any coercion, harassment, or penalty. All vaccines are pharmaceutical products that carry a risk of injury and even death. Vaccination should not be a condition of receiving an education. An improvement to this bill would be to remove the language that allows a religious exemption to vaccination for a child whose parents object in writing due to their "religious tenets or practices" and change it to language that encompasses all "sincerely held religious beliefs." By changing this bill language, the religious exemption cannot be scrutinized if a particular religion does not have an official profession in opposition to vaccination, but rather, the bill would reflect the personal and individual nature of one's religious beliefs.
https://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2024/pdf/history/HB/HB1510.xml - text, status, and history of HB 1510
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