June 9, 2025
During a hearing that lasted more than eight hours, Massachusetts residents urged state lawmakers not to eliminate religious exemptions from school vaccine mandates and not to allow minor children to be vaccinated at school without the consent of a parent.
The state’s Joint Committee on Public Health last week heard public testimony on several bills, including bills (#2554 in the House and #1557 in the Senate) that would eliminate religious exemption for school-required vaccines, and a bill (#1618 in the Senate) that would, among other things, allow minors to consent to vaccination without parental consent or knowledge — regardless of age or mental capacity.
The committee is expected to vote on the bills soon.
Candice Edwards, executive director of Health Action Massachusetts, one of the many Massachusetts residents who testified in opposition to the bills, told The Defender that for decades, Massachusetts residents have relied on the state’s religious exemption to make “deeply personal, value-based decisions about their children’s health.”
“Taking that away would force many to choose between violating their conscience or losing access to school, childcare and even college,” Edwards said.
Children’s Health Defense CEO Mary Holland, who attended the hearing remotely, said, “Massachusetts’ efforts smack of politics, not common sense or public health. Massachusetts should follow the lead of 46 states that successfully balance religious rights with public health.”
Michael Kane, founder of Teachers for Choice, who attended the hearing remotely and will interview Edwards about the bills on Tuesday’s episode of Good Morning CHD, said he was “very impressed” with the response from Massachusetts citizens. He estimated that over 90% of the testimony delivered at the hearing urged support for medical freedom, parental and religious rights.
Edwards agreed. “We showed up as parents, grandparents, immigrants, doctors, scientists, educators and faith leaders. Voices from every background — across faiths, ethnicities, and life experiences — stood united.”
She added:
“This fight is not just about opposing vaccines — it’s about preserving parental rights, religious liberty and equal access to education for all families…That’s why our grassroots coalition is growing stronger every day.
“Moms, dads, LGBTQ individuals, those with disabilities and first-generation Americans all came forward to show that this issue doesn’t just affect a few — it affects all of us.”
In addition to voicing opposition to the bills that threatened religious exemptions and parents’ rights, citizens voiced support for a measure (#2541 in the House and #347 in the Senate), which would preserve existing law governing religious exemptions for school-required vaccines.
According to Health Action Massachusetts, the measure would also broaden and clarify the criteria doctors can use when considering medical exemptions for school attendance, and protect doctors from professional repercussions for issuing medical exemptions.
Here’s what the Massachusetts bills would do
The bills that threaten religious exemptions — House bill 2554 and Senate bill 1557 — have different titles but identical text. According to Edwards, the measure would eliminate religious exemptions for school-required vaccines, leaving only medical exemptions.
“The bills also mandate schools to report immunization data to the Department of Public Health, and would allow the Department of Public Health to publish school-level data on vaccination and exemption rates,” Edwards said.
She said Senate Bill 1618, “An Act Promoting Community Immunity,” is a roughly nine-page bill that is “complicated, coercive and deeply harmful — not just to students, but also to schools, families and doctors.”
Holland noted that a more accurate title for the bill would be the “community coercion” bill rather than the “community immunity” bill.
The bill, which would apply to public and private K–12 schools, childcare centers, preschools, summer camps, after-school programs and colleges, claims to improve immunization reporting — “but it goes far beyond that,” Edwards said.
According to Edwards, here is what the Community Immunity Act would do:
- Allow minors, regardless of age or mental capacity, to consent to vaccines and other “preventative care” without a parent’s knowledge or consent.
- Require parents to apply for state approval every year for both religious and medical exemptions — separately for each school or program their child attends.
- Offer no appeal process if an exemption is denied, leaving families with no recourse.
- Force doctors to sign off on all exemption forms, including religious ones, potentially leading them to stop seeing families altogether.
- Limit medical exemptions to only a very narrow list of conditions, making it nearly impossible for some medically fragile children to qualify.
- Give the Department of Public Health authority to mandate vaccines not recommended by the CDC, with no legislative approval required.
- Label schools or programs as “Elevated Risk” if they fall below state-set vaccination rates — even if there’s no outbreak or public health emergency.
- Require those “Elevated Risk” schools to send public notices home to parents, and give the health department the power to exclude healthy, unvaccinated children from attendance.
- Raise serious concerns about privacy, equity, and discrimination, particularly in small schools and minority communities more likely to be targeted or labeled.
- Allow private daycares, schools, and colleges to deny religious exemptions entirely and require additional vaccines — such as COVID-19, flu, or HPV — even if the state hasn’t mandated them.
‘The medical freedom vote has changed the political landscape’
Kane noted that the committee chairman listened remarkably well to the eight hours of testimony — something that didn’t happen in past years, he said.
Now, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. serving as U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, politicians are seeing that “the medical freedom vote has truly changed the political landscape,” Kane said.
He added:
“I think Massachusetts is very aware there’s a microscope on them and that if they’re going to try to pull this off [by repealing religious exemptions and undermining parents’ rights], they better dot their I’s and cross their T’s.
“All eyes are on Massachusetts right now — just as all eyes were on Hawaii a few months ago.”
Residents in Hawaii recently killed a bill that included a provision that would have removed residents’ right to religious exemptions from vaccines.
Kane said he was “very encouraged” by the grassroots action on behalf of medical freedom in Massachusetts. The medical freedom movement “has become much more of a fine-oiled machine and is able to react and respond to these things, both locally and nationally. So despite it being hard times for Massachusetts right now, I am optimistic.”
Post-COVID there’s scant public support for vaccine mandates
Holland, who lives in New York where religious exemptions were repealed in 2019, said she has witnessed what happens when a state repeals religious exemptions.
Roughly 26,000 New York children lost their rights to religious exemptions in June 2019, Holland said. “These families were confronted with incredibly difficult decisions that completely disrupted their lives — they had to move to a state with greater religious Freedom. Or take on homeschooling. Or vaccinate children in a rushed manner to keep them in school.”
Holland said it was heartbreaking to watch families move all across the country, “leaving loved ones, businesses and strong community ties.” But even more heartbreaking are the cases of children who were ‘caught up’ on their shots and suffered severe medical injuries,” she added.
Holland said the pharmaceutical industry stands to benefit from vaccine mandates. However, post-COVID, there is little public support for vaccine mandates, she said. “Polling data makes this abundantly clear,” she said.