NVIC Vaccine News

Colorado Legislators Protect Personal Belief Exemption But Vaccine Bill Still Opens Door for Harassment

By Theresa Wrangham
Published May 06, 2014 in Government


Just before midnight on Friday, May 2nd 2014, members of the Colorado House of Representatives voted 39 to 29 to accept the Senate-modified version of HB 1288 that rejected a requirement forcing parents filing a personal belief vaccine exemption for their children to undergo state-mandated vaccine “education” or obtain a signature from a pediatrician or other state-approved vaccine provider. Removal of the signature requirement and re-education component of the bill is a victory for the hundreds of concerned Colorado citizens who contacted their legislators and worked closely with NVIC’s state advocacy team to present testimony in public hearings in the House and Senate.  
 
Legislators Listened to Constituents and Affirmed Parental Rights

“Many legislators took the time to listen to constituents expressing deep concern about a bill that would penalize parents for making medical decisions for their children,” explained NVIC Colorado State Advocacy Director Cindy Loveland. “This action shows that a majority of Colorado legislators support and trust parents to make informed vaccination decisions for their children without interference from the state.”
 
NVIC Executive Director Theresa Wrangham, who represented NVIC in a 2013 public engagement project examining the state’s personal belief exemption, testified at both public hearings and added, “I am proud to be a Colorado parent and stand with such an articulate and responsible group of parents who understood the stakes. They used NVIC's Advocacy Portal tools to pull together and uphold parental rights and defend informed consent.”
 
Colorado First State to Protect Personal Belief Exemption Without Modification
 
Colorado is one of 17 states that allows an exemption to vaccination for personal, philosophical or conscientious beliefs. This year’s orchestrated and well-publicized campaign by politically powerful groups associated with pharmaceutical companies, public health and other medical trade associations to restrict the personal belief vaccine exemption in Colorado was similar to campaigns waged in Washington, Vermont, California and Oregon between 2011 and 2013.
 
Washington and California passed laws compelling parents filing a personal belief exemption to first obtain a signature from a doctor or state designated health care worker, while Oregon mandated state-vaccine education and Vermont now requires parents to sign a statement acknowledging the risks of remaining unvaccinated. Colorado is the first state to protect the personal belief exemption currently in state public health law without modification.
 
Contentious Bill Provision Opens Door for Harassment
 
The stripped-down version of HB1288 heading to Governor John Hickenlooper’s desk for signature still contains provisions that NVIC opposes. The final bill requires every daycare facility and school in the state to publicly release vaccination rates, which opens the door for identification of children with a medical, religious or personal belief exemption on file with daycare facilities and elementary, middle and high schools.
 
Commenting on the bill’s potential for targeting of families with children taking vaccine exemptions, Dawn Richardson, NVIC’s Advocacy Director said, “While the bill no longer contains an offensive and discriminatory state enforced re-education requirement, what remains in HB 1288 could open the door to revealing which children in the daycare centers or schools have filed vaccine exemptions and make them vulnerable to harassment. In addition, much of what is still in the bill can be accomplished under current state statutes. The Governor should veto it.”
 
The bill, which becomes effective July 1, 2014, also requires the state health department to establish “a joint policy on immunization data collection and sharing” in consultation with other state departments.” In addition, it gives the state heath department discretion to require parents filing personal belief exemptions to re-file them more than once.
 
Take Action Now - Register for the NVIC Advocacy Portal Today

To review the complete history of NVIC’s efforts on HB 1288 and be notified by email of what happens if the Governor signs the bill, sign up and become a user of the free online NVIC Advocacy Portal and link to the Action Alerts on the Colorado state team page.
 
Watch a video of the final House vote and discussion (starting at 5:19:20) and read details (pages 43-44) about the final House vote on May 2 in the Colorado General Assembly House Journal.  

Thank You and Appeal for Vigilance

“Thank you to each and every citizen in Colorado who took the time to get involved in the legislative process and work through the NVIC Advocacy Portal to make your voice heard,” said Dawn Richardson. “We are grateful to legislators in Colorado for keeping an open mind and taking seriously the legitimate concerns of informed parents and health care professionals defending the legal right to make voluntary vaccination decisions.”
 
NVIC is encouraging everyone in Colorado and every state to stay engaged and continue to educate community leaders and legislators over the summer and fall and be prepared to respond if similar legislation is reintroduced.  
 
“The forced vaccination lobby has a long term goal of persuading legislators to eliminate all non-medical vaccine exemptions,” said Theresa Wrangham. “We have to remain vigilant and ready to take action in every state. The best way for families and health care professionals to do that is by plugging into the NVIC Advocacy Portal so we can work together to respond in an effective way.”

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10 Responses to "Colorado Legislators Protect Personal Belief Exemption But Vaccine Bill Still Opens Door for Harassment"
Commenter Name
shar
Posted: 5/7/2014 1:44:08 PM
So glad. I hope other states will follow Colorado's example. Parents have the right and responsibility to care for their children.
Commenter Name
dr. isali ben-jacob
Posted: 5/7/2014 1:57:18 PM
There are three issues: the safety and efficacy of vaccines; the Right each person has to decide the form of healthcare they wish; and lastly that no healthcare can be mandated by the State(this was settled following WW2). The overwhelming incontrovertible evidence demonstrates the public harm and wanting of sufficient efficacy that would justify the administration of any vaccine. The last two are self evident.
Commenter Name
mary
Posted: 5/7/2014 2:35:22 PM
Thank you! I did contact all the senators I could by email, and several wrote back saying they would vote against the bill. Thank goodness!
Commenter Name
Shira Nahari
Posted: 5/7/2014 3:54:40 PM
Under no circumstances will I be vaccinated! The right to free choice in this matter is key and must be preserved!
Commenter Name
Amy Lansky
Posted: 5/7/2014 9:09:55 PM
This is indeed good news. I hope our new California requirement can be removed, now that there is a precedent... Thank you NVIC! -Amy
Commenter Name
JoyH
Posted: 5/8/2014 2:50:16 PM
This is still very concerning. By forcing the publication of vaccination rates that is essentially releasing the medical information of students that would otherwise be private. It is only a matter of time after that information is published that most parents will ask around to find out if you vaccinated your child(ren) or not. Next step, shunning those that have not been vaccinated regardless of the reasoning behind that decision. It is not acceptable. I will add CO to my "AVOID" list as well as MS and WV when my husband has career opportunities to move in the university system again (which happens often, at least every 3 years). The right to choice in medical care must be fought for in every state and region. Please continue your personal fight in your area of the country to keep parental rights superior to state/government law. Consider supporting the Parental Rights Amendment as well that many are pushing for around the country.
Commenter Name
Krishna Murphy
Posted: 5/9/2014 2:53:06 AM
Vaccination status is part of your medical record, which can't be disclosed or required to reveal w/o violation of HIPAA. There is also an issue with international agreements requiring informed consent.
Commenter Name
Jon Marathon
Posted: 5/11/2014 7:35:41 PM
Concerning the vaccination rate reporting provision, I think we must be careful of the slippery slope argument. I haven't seen the language in the bill, but hopefully the data will be anonymized. Clearly it wouldn't be too difficult to figure out who's not vaccinated in a small childcare center, in which case that would be a HIPAA violation. Those date should be aggregated so the individuals remain anonymous. If they're not, I would think affected persons would be able to file suit, although I'm not an attorney. Colorado residents in favor of informed vaccine choice should be proud of their efforts, but they should also be careful what they wish for. If Gov Hickenlooper were to veto the bill, that would just give the opponents of choice another chance to push their bill through.
Commenter Name
Dr. C
Posted: 7/22/2014 12:01:11 PM
I affirm a parent's right to choose.. I am more or less opposed to having vaccinations at all, but having justrecovered from whooping cough, i can tell you it would be wise to consider getting the vaccine... trips to ER's and MD's alone were in the thoudands of dollars, combined with the loss of work time. Twelve weeks of coughing is what you are looking at. Uggh.
Commenter Name
NVIC supporter Colorado
Posted: 2/27/2015 7:45:06 PM
Thank you so much, for the hard work and dedicated effort that led to a victory, at least this time around. I'm proud to be a Colorado native, and proud to support the NVIC. There is currently a petition at whitehouse.gov asking all laws which force mandatory vaccines to be nullified and prohibited in the future. It's going to take federal level action to stop this. Please sign, please support. Thank god you people are on top of these issues. We're too busy with our 1 and 3 year olds at the moment, but we did write in a scathing letter just recently to the senators, for them daring to try and supersede our personal liberties, in our support letter for the parental bill of rights. That passed as well. Soon, Colorado may be one of the last states to successfully oppose the pharmaceutical industry. No wonder we're the #1 destination state in the country. Per a previous commenter, you can still use record keeping opt outs in CO, and keeping those records become your responsibility and are not part of the online vaccine database record.
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