Vaccination and U.S. Law: A Brief Summary

• Medical Exemptions: All 50 states allow medical exemption to vaccination.

Medical exemptions to vaccination must be written by a medical doctor (M.D.) or doctor of osteopathy (D.O.) and are usually reviewed annually by school or state health officials.

Since 1986, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have eliminated most officially recognized medical reasons for withholding vaccination (contraindications) so that almost no medical condition qualifies for a medical exemption to vaccination.

In most states, school or state public health officials can question or even deny a medical exemption to vaccination written by a doctor if it does not strictly conform to CDC and AAP contraindication guidelines.

The National Vaccine Information Center is working with citizens who want to change vaccine laws to prevent state school or health officials from questioning or denying a medical exemption to vaccination written by a doctor.

• Religious Exemptions: All but two states (West Virginia and Mississippi) allow religious exemption to vaccination.

These exemptions are worded differently in different states and require different forms of written documentation that must be submitted to state governments supporting a sincerely held religious belief opposing vaccination.

Some states require a notarized affidavit or letter from a spiritual advisor attesting to the sincerity of a person’s religious beliefs about vaccination. The religious exemption is under attack and, in some states like New York, parents are being grilled about the sincerity of their religious beliefs by state officials and denied religious exemptions to vaccination so their partially or completely unvaccinated children cannot attend public schools.

The National Vaccine Information Center is working with citizens, who want to protect their rights to religious exemptions, to add or re-write the religious exemption in state vaccine laws.

• Conscientious Belief Exemptions: 18 states allow conscientious, personal or philosophical belief exemption to vaccination. These states come the closest to protecting a citizen’s right to exercise voluntary, informed consent to vaccination in America. They are:

Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin

This exemption, like the religious exemption, is under attack by forced vaccination proponents who want to eliminate non-medical exemptions to vaccination in America.

The National Vaccine Information Center is working with citizens who want to protect or add conscientious belief exemption in state vaccine laws.

• Vaccine Exemptions for Military Personnel: All branches of the U.S. Armed Services provide medical and religious exemptions to vaccination, but those exemptions must be first declared before enlistment in the military.

If a military recruit does not clearly state a medical or religious objection to vaccination BEFORE joining the military, he or she gives up the right to object to vaccination during active military service. Failure to obey an order to vaccinate while on active military duty can result in demotion, imprisonment and involuntary discharge from the military, including dishonorable discharge.

After enlistment, legal assistance is often required to successfully object to vaccination without being subjected to sanctions.

Family dependents of active military personnel often must obtain approval from military officials to exempt children from vaccination for medical reasons or religious objections, especially if the children are attending military-operated daycare or schools or are deployed to foreign countries or re-entering the U.S. after living in a foreign country.

• Vaccine Exemptions for International Travel: Different countries have different laws requiring vaccines to enter or leave the country.

Most developed countries, including those in Europe, currently do not require visitors to show proof of vaccination. However, some countries in Africa, Asia and elsewhere may require certain vaccines to enter or exit. Click here to check the CDC website on travel vaccine requirements.

• Other Vaccine Exemption Issues: Vaccine choices also can affect adoption, immigration, child custody arrangements during divorce proceedings, eligibility for health insurance and government entitlement programs, and medical care.

Children adopted from foreign countries as well as in the U.S. may be required by US law and adoption agencies to receive certain government mandated vaccines.

Immigration laws also contain vaccine requirement provisions.

In cases of divorce, one parent may attempt to gain full custody of a minor child by using the vaccine choice issue as leverage.

Some families have been dropped from medical insurance plans or barred from eligibility for government funded medical care and food supplement programs if children are not given all government recommended vaccines.

Increasingly, pediatricians are refusing to treat children who are not fully vaccinated and, in some instances, medical personnel in hospital emergency rooms and physicians’ offices have reported parents to state child social services agencies for child medical neglect for refusing to vaccinate their children. In these circumstances, you may need to consult to protect informed consent rights.

Legal Options

The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 was passed by Congress to protect vaccine manufacturers and vaccine providers from liability for vaccine injuries and deaths in civil court.

If a child is injured by a government recommended or mandated vaccine, the child must sue the Secretary of Health for damages under the Act in the U.S. Court of Claims in Washington, D.C.

If the vaccine injured child is turned down for federal compensation or offered too little to provide for the child’s lifetime care, a lawsuit may be filed in civil court against a vaccine manufacturer or negligent doctor with certain restrictions.

By 2009, about $2 billion had been awarded to vaccine victims for brain inflammation and immune system damage leading to permanent injury or death, even though two out of three children are turned away for federal compensation.