“I think it’s really important that we demonstrate that we have a team in place that’s going to be aggressive, proactive, and we’re going to begin this transformational process to put West Virginia first and be that Shining State in the Mountains.”
~ Gov. Patrick Morrisey
Within 24 hours of taking office this month, West Virginia’s new governor Patrick Morrisey—elected as governor after a dozen years as attorney general—signed Executive Order No. 7-25 providing for religious and conscientious exemptions from mandatory vaccines for schoolchildren. In support of his action, Morrisey cited West Virginia’s Equal Protection for Religion Act passed in 2023 and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Morrisey’s executive order puts a decisive end to a health freedom battle that has spanned decades. Just last year, West Virginia’s Republican-majority legislature tried to pass a less ambitious bill that would have allowed religious exemptions in virtual, private, and parochial schools, but Morrisey’s predecessor vetoed it. Morrisey is now encouraging state lawmakers to codify his executive order into law with legislation.
In the U.S., there are two types of nonmedical vaccine exemptions—religious belief exemptions and personal/conscientious belief exemptions. Medical exemptions, a third “option,” are generally very difficult to obtain. For decades, West Virginia and Mississippi were the only two states in the nation that did not offer nonmedical exemptions. Since 2015, four more states have revoked their nonmedical exemptions: California (2015), New York (2019), Maine (2019), and Connecticut (2021). Now, Mississippi (which secured religious exemptions in 2023) and West Virginia are leading the way in swinging the pendulum back in the direction of religious and health freedom.
In reporting on Morrisey’s executive order, the AP news outlet noted, without irony, that despite having some of the highest childhood vaccination rates in the country, West Virginia is the U.S. state “with the worst health outcomes and lowest life expectancy rates.” Back in 2018, Big Pharma shill Paul Offit pretended to be puzzled by a similar “contradiction” in Mississippi between the state’s high vaccine coverage and poor health rankings.
In this MAHA moment, it is important not to lose sight of the far bigger forms of vaccine pushback that are needed, including abolishing vaccine mandates altogether and repealing the horrific 1986 Act that gave vaccine manufacturers their own form of “exemption”—exemption from liability. Even more essential, perhaps, is helping the public understand, as Katherine Watt has been doing at Bailiwick News, that vaccine regulation is “performative and false” and that all vaccines amount to government-licensed poisons.
Nevertheless, state-level vaccine exemptions can still make a critical difference in the short term, and we join with West Virginia families in celebrating their state’s long-overdue acknowledgment of parents’ right to make informed health decisions on behalf of their children.
An honorable mention goes to ICAN’s attorneys, led by lead counsel Aaron Siri, who have been assiduously working to restore religious exemptions in all 50 states.
Related:
Breaking: West Virginia Now Provides Religious and Moral Exemptions for School Vaccine Mandates!
“Huge Win”: West Virginia Governor Issues Executive Order Allowing Religious Exemptions
West Virginia Governor Axes DEI and Enacts Vaccine Exemptions on First Full Day in Office
Mississippi’s Religious Exemption for School Children Now Permanently Secured!
Religious and Philosophical Exemptions from School Vaccine Mandates: What’s Happening in Your State?
Vaccine Non-Regulation History, Shortest Form Versions Currently Available
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