Global Courant 2023-04-19 04:13:00
Mississippi, like most other states, must allow religious exemptions from vaccinations children must receive to attend school, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden ruled on Monday in a lawsuit filed last year by several parents who say their religious beliefs have resulted in their children not being vaccinated and not allowed to attend schools in Mississippi. According to the lawsuit, some plaintiffs homeschool their children, while others have family or work relationships in Mississippi but live in other states that allow religious exemptions for childhood vaccinations.
Ozerden set a July 15 deadline for the Mississippi State Department of Health to authorize religious exemptions. The state already allows people to apply for medical waivers for a series of five vaccinations required for children to enroll in public or private school. The vaccinations are against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough; polio; hepatitis; measles, mumps and rubella; and chickenpox.
Mississippi does not require COVID-19 vaccinations.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, California, Connecticut, Maine, Mississippi, New York and West Virginia are the only states with no exemptions for religious or personal beliefs from school immunization requirements.
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Responding to questions from The Associated Press on Tuesday, health department spokesperson Liz Sharlot declined to say whether the department will appeal the judge’s ruling. She did not say whether the department has an estimate of how many people could apply for religious exemptions from vaccinations.
“The Mississippi State Department of Health continues to support strong immunization laws that protect our children,” Sharlot said. “Furthermore, it is our long-standing policy that the Agency does not comment on pending litigation.”
Parents with their children and medical professionals listen to testimonials from advocates for allowing exemption from the school attendance vaccination requirement based on religious beliefs at a House Judiciary B Committee meeting, Jan. 24, 2018, at the Capitol in Jackson, Mississippi. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
The lawsuit, funded by the Texas-based Informed Consent Action Network, argued that Mississippi’s lack of a religious exemption for childhood vaccinations violates the U.S. Constitution.
“The state of Mississippi offers a secular exemption to those with medical reasons that prohibit vaccination, indicating it can accommodate students who have not been vaccinated,” the network said in a statement. “It has simply chosen not to grant an exemption when it is the immortal soul of someone that a parent believes is in danger.”
One of the families who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit believes that “God created humans with functioning immune systems that were well designed to counter threats,” the lawsuit said, adding that they only seek drugs “when an intervention is clearly is necessary.”
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Mississippi once had a religious exemption for childhood vaccinations, but it was reversed in 1979 by a state court judge who ruled that vaccinated children have a constitutional right to be free from association with their unvaccinated peers, the lawsuit said.
In recent years, Mississippi lawmakers have rejected proposals to allow religious exemptions for childhood vaccinations. Health officials have argued that allowing more exemptions could lead to the spread of preventable diseases.
