Tennessee Doctors Speak Out on Potential Vaccine Restrictions

Doctors say amending "mature minor" guidance will lead to harm

A group of Tennessee doctors affiliated with the healthcare advocacy group Protect My Care is speaking out on a proposal to amend the mature minor doctrine in the state as it relates to vaccines.

The doctors say amending the existing law and requiring parental consent for any vaccine given to anyone under the age of 18 could have devastating public health consequences.

Nashville area pediatrician Dr. Vidya Bansal is concerned. “Treating older minors without parental consent has been a standard part of medical practice at least since the 1980s Tennessee court decision that supported older minors having capacity to make their own medical decisions. The ‘Rule of Sevens’ indicates that between the ages of 14 and 18, there is a rebuttable presumption of capacity, and a physician may treat these older minors without parental consent unless the physician believes that the minor is not sufficiently mature to make his or her own health care decisions. This is a reasonable approach to a child’s medical care, and it seems untimely to try to restrict healthcare for our children. We really need to focus on closing the childhood vaccination gap we face after the last three years of delayed care.” 

Dr. Amy Gordon Bono, a primary care physician who also holds a Masters of Public Health, shares Dr. Bansal’s concerns. “This attempt to clarify the mature minor doctrine—a standard in the practice of medicine for decades—is an unwelcome government intrusion in the patient-physician relationship. This bill will create a change in the practice patterns physicians have experienced for decades to ethically provide medical care to children in the state of Tennessee. My physician colleagues of multiple specialties suffered significantly during the COVID pandemic, and during the changes caused by Supreme Court Dobbs decision. So with this bill, the General Assembly just adds pediatricians to a laundry list of physician specialties negatively impacted by tumultuous political decisions.” 

Photo byMufid MajnunonUnsplash