LD 798, An Act To Protect Maine Children and Students from Preventable Diseases by Repealing Certain Exemptions from the Laws Governing Immunization Requirements

The Bill simply removes all religious and philosophical vaccine exemptions, for anyone, from anywhere in the Maine Department of Education and the Maine Health and Human Services law.

“SUMMARY
Current law allows exemptions from immunization requirements based on religious or philosophical beliefs for students in elementary and secondary schools and schools and health care facilities. This bill removes those exemptions. The bill also directs the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services to remove any immunization exemptions based on religious or philosophical beliefs from their rules and requires the Department of Education to adopt rules allowing a student who is covered by an individualized education plan and has elected a philosophical or religious exemption from immunization requirements to continue to attend school under the existing exemption as long as an appropriate medical professional provides a statement that the medical professional has provided information on the risks and benefits associated with the choice to immunize.”

“School” means any public or private, post-secondary school in the State including, but not limited to colleges, universities, community colleges and schools for the health professions.”

This is daycare, preschool, k-12, colleges, nursing schools, medical schools… ALL SCHOOLS, public and private, IEP or not, 504 or not.

Medical exemptions will remain restricted, the most narrow in the country and are next to impossible to get in Maine.
https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/infectious-disease/immunization/family/documents/State-Immunization-law-for-children-in-public-private-school.pdf

There is a carve out to grandfather current IEP kids until they graduate, but next year, kindergartners with IEPs will be denied FAPE. Even children with cancer will not get a legal medical exemption from DTaP or TDaP.

It also extends to staff of medical facilities, and even declarations of state emergencies.

Maine can also add required vaccines to the schedule by fiat, without passing a law, and without public hearings. So in June you may leave school, only to come back in September to find that Gardasil has been mandated for school and you cannot opt out.

To sum up, it completely removes religious and philosophical exemptions in Maine.

Christians, Jews, Muslims, all religious sects and all people of conscience will be forced to inject WI-38, MRC-5, RA 27/3 and other morally objectionable material into their own bodies and the bodies of their children.

Everyone in Maine will be forced to buy and use Stanley Plotkin’s products.

We urge Mainers to Call your legislator today and demand that he or she oppose this bill.

We urge you to call all the Mainers you know and tell them to get to Augusta, as often as possible, to walk the halls and talk to legislators.

This bill has to be defeated.