Religious, health freedom groups push Justice to sign vaccine exemption bill

Debora Harrah, Tara Raymo, Chanda Adkins, Dr. Alvin Moss and Marlene Moss stand outside the governor’s reception room at the West Virginia Capitol on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, in Charleston, W.Va. Representatives of groups that advocate for religious and health freedom presented a petition to Gov. Jim Justice’s office asking him to sign House Bill 5105, which would loosen vaccination restrictions, into law. (Lori Kersey | West Virginia Watch)

Groups that advocate for “health freedom” and “religious freedom” are weighing in on a bill that would allow the state’s private and parochial schools to develop their own vaccination policies, adding to the pressure Gov. Jim Justice is getting to act one way or the other on the legislation.

Representatives from West Virginians for Health Freedom and West Virginia Parents for Religious Freedom on Tuesday presented a petition with about a thousand signatures asking Justice to sign House Bill 5105 into law.

“As a parent, family member or friend of one or more children in West Virginia, a state whose motto is ‘Mountaineers are always free,’ it is disheartening to be unable to make medical decisions for them about vaccination without being coerced by current state law that mandates vaccines to attend public, private, and parochial schools, and state-regulated childcare centers,” the petition reads in part.

Dr. Alvin Moss, a physician and a member of West Virginians for Health Freedom, said the petition gaining so many signatures from “almost every county” in the past few days “shows that this is an issue that resonates. Not only did we have the majority of the House and majority of the Senate, but the majority of West Virginians believed in freedom. They believe in freedom.”

Some members of the House of Delegates, including lead sponsor Del. Laura Kimble, R-Harrison, expressed similar views as they voted 57-to-41 to pass the Legislation .

Like all states, West Virginia requires school students to be vaccinated against a series of infectious diseases, such as polio, measles and mumps. The state is among five that do not allow religious or philosophical exemptions to school vaccine mandates. The state only allows medical exemptions.

As introduced, House Bill 5105 would have provided an exemption to vaccine mandates to students attending public virtual schools in the state. Amendments added by the House of Delegates would allow private and parochial schools to have their own immunization policies. Another would have allowed students in all schools to have religious exemptions to vaccine requirements, but that amendment was removed in a version approved by the Senate Health Committee.

Vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective at preventing the spread of disease.

Several health organizations, including the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, American Academy of Pediatrics and the West Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, have called on the governor to veto the bill. The West Virginia Immunization Network and more than two dozen other organizations called on the governor to veto the bill in an open letter published in the Gazette-Mail recently.

Justice told reporters last week his office had been “bombarded” with calls from physicians and others asking him to veto the legislation . He said he would have to look at the bill before making a decision.

Physicians have credited the state’s strong vaccine laws as the reason West Virginia has not had an outbreak of measles, a highly contagious potentially deadly disease, since 2009.

Justice has until Wednesday, March 27 to sign or veto the bill. After that, it would become law without his signature.

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