Massachusetts lawmakers want to bar unvaccinated students without medical exemptions from attending school

By lauraharris // 2025-04-29

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Massachusetts lawmakers are advancing bills to remove religious exemptions for school vaccine mandates, leaving only medical exemptions. Unvaccinated students without exemptions would be barred from attending school, forcing families to comply or homeschool.
A separate proposal (An Act Promoting Community Immunity) would allow minors (age unclear) to receive state-recommended vaccines and other "preventative care" without parental knowledge or consent.
The bill grants the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) broad power to adjust vaccine mandates, require physician approval for exemptions, and label schools with low vaccination rates as "Elevated Risk," allowing them to exclude unvaccinated children.
Another bill (An Act Enhancing Access to Abortion) would let minors independently consent to reproductive care, vaccines and even sterilization without parental input, raising concerns over lack of age or competency standards.
Advocacy groups like Health Rights MA and Health Action Massachusetts are mobilizing opposition, citing parallels to a failed 2020 proposal.

Massachusetts lawmakers are advancing controversial proposals that would remove religious exemptions for school vaccine mandates and allow minors to receive vaccinations, including Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) shots, without parental consent. Two bills, introduced in both the Massachusetts House and Senate, seek to remove religious exemptions for school-required vaccines. Under current law, families can cite sincerely held religious beliefs as a valid reason to forgo vaccinations while still enrolling their children in public or private schools. If the legislation passes, only medical exemptions would remain, leaving unvaccinated students without exemptions barred from attending school. This would force families to either comply with state-mandated vaccines or seek alternative education options such as homeschooling. Another proposal, An Act Promoting Community Immunity, would expand state control over vaccine requirements while further eroding parental rights. According to Health Rights Massachusetts, the bill would allow minors (ages undisclosed) to consent to vaccinations and other "preventative care" without parental knowledge or permission and enable private childcare centers, K-12 schools and colleges to impose additional vaccine mandates (such as COVID-19 shots) beyond state-required immunizations. This proposal also requires state approval for both religious and medical exemptions, grant the Department of Public Health (DPH) sweeping authority to modify vaccine mandates and exemption criteria, force physicians to sign off on religious exemptions, potentially limiting their availability and label schools with low vaccination rates as "Elevated Risk," allowing them to exclude unvaccinated children even without an active disease outbreak. This bill effectively removes parental rights while giving the government broad power to set vaccination policies without legislative oversight. If passed, the legislation would make Massachusetts the seventh state to eliminate non-medical exemptions for K-12 student vaccinations. This could strip parents of their ability to opt their children out of immunizations based on religious objections while granting healthcare providers authority to vaccinate minors without parental involvement. A third proposal, called An Act Enhancing Access to Abortion, includes provisions allowing minors to independently consent to all forms of reproductive healthcare and so-called preventative care, including vaccines and sterilization, without parental involvement. Health Action Massachusetts noted that the bill lacks age restrictions or mental competency standards. Meaning, a young teenager could theoretically consent to medical interventions without parental awareness.

Advocacy groups mobilize resistance to the controversial proposals

This is not the first time Massachusetts has attempted to remove religious exemptions. Lawmakers pushed a similar bill during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it fizzled in committee after overwhelming public backlash. "They invited people to come online … for three minutes each and there were 400 or 500 people online and they let all of them testify. It was amazing. It went on for hours and hours and hours." Beth Ingham, a leader of the Children's Health Defense's (CHD) New England Chapter, recalled. Now, with three new bills under consideration, advocacy groups like Health Rights MA and Health Action Massachusetts are mobilizing resistance by providing resources and action alerts to inform the public. (Related: Victory for health freedom: Hawaii's vaccine exemptions remain after massive pushback from the public.) "Health Rights MA opposes the following bills (pertaining to the proposals). Below you will find opposition letter templates to get you started and a link to find your lawmakers. A phone call is worth at least 100 emails so please do both! A meeting is worth 1,000 emails, so please get one of those if you can. A Health Rights MA member would be happy to attend with you," the advocacy group wrote in the call to action on their official website. Visit MedicalTyranny.com for more similar stories. Watch the video below about a Minnesota nurse revealing an internal memo telling clinicians not to offer medical exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine.

This video is from the OP News channel on Brighteon.com.

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Advocacy groups mobilize resistance to the controversial proposals

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