NVIC Joins National Push to Protect Religious Exemptions to Vaccination in 46 States

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) along with Stand for Health Freedom, Health Freedom Defense Fund, the Weston A. Price Foundation, and other health and religious freedom organizations, is urging national leaders to reject a dangerous new proposal for a Presidential Executive Order (EO) and other federal legal initiatives that could override states’ rights and put religious liberty at risk in all 50 states.

On June 14, 2025, NVIC and coalition partners released a letter and addendum appealing to the Religious Liberty Commission (RLC) to defend the constitutional authority of states to make public health law,  warning against endorsing a proposed Presidential Executive Order championed by the organization Guiding the Impact led by founder Elyse Young. Though branded as a religious liberty win, NVIC maintains that the EO could backfire. The EO is being circulated as a solution to the loss of the religious exemption to vaccination in four states (CA, NY, ME, CT) —but NVIC maintains there is a real risk that federal action could drive a religious exemption lawsuit to the US Supreme Court, which could jeopardize the religious and medical freedom of families in all 50 states.

     “The current Supreme Court upheld the last administration’s federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate and there are justices still sitting on the Court who voted to eliminate all product design defect liability from vaccine manufacturers in 2011. This is not the time to be gambling religious liberty in all 50 states with a misguided lawsuit heard in the Supreme Court that reaffirms mandatory vaccination,” said Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center.  “Our four page letter and addendum outlines the real constitutional issues in simple terms —no legal degree required.”

This Addendum outlines three grave concerns about the proposed EO:

1. The proposed EO promotes legitimizes vaccine mandates in the U.S. by framing them as “constitutionally authorized”—a claim nowhere supported in the text of the U.S. Constitution.
    
2. The proposed EO affirms that vaccine mandates are legitimate as long as a religious belief exemption to vaccination is included in the law opening the door for federal endorsement and implementation of state and federal vaccine mandates across the nation.
    
3. The proposed EO tacitly approves policies tactics like electronic surveillance, exclusion, forced testing, and alternate schooling for unvaccinated children, echoing some of the worst coercive and discriminatory policies left over from the Covid pandemic response era.

"It is with serious concern that I must acknowledge: our federal government has failed us, repeatedly. The Supreme Court ruled that the government may dictate our medical choices. The President fast-tracked and promoted dangerous pharmaceutical products. And Congress has neglected its duty to ensure its own laws serve the people. Inviting more federal intervention is a risk we can no longer afford to take.” Leslie Manookian, President/Founder Health Freedom Defense Fund

What You Need to Read Now:

• Warning Letter: The official response from NVIC, SFH, HFDF, and others sounding the alarm about the threat to states’ rights is a warning that the proposed EO isn't a fix, it's a federal Trojan horse.

• Addendum (The Constitutional Reality Check) is a legal breakdown describing how the proposed EO mangles protection of states rights outlined in the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution—and risks reaffirming a bad precedent-setting 1905 SCOTUS ruling in Jacobson v Massachusetts that endorsed forced vaccination and invalidated religious belief objections to vaccine mandates. READ OUR LETTER AND ADDENDUM HERE

• The EO Itself: “Preserving Access to Education and Free Exercise of Religion”  The full text that most signers never read. If you signed the letter backing this EO, read this before your name is used to promote vaccine mandates. Click HERE
  
  Take Action:
  📥 Want to sign the No Vaccine Mandates coalition letter as yourself or organization? Click HERE to add your name today!
  📣 Share the Addendum with your family, friends, state and federal lawmakers, pastors, or board members.
   

  👉 Don’t miss Barbara Loe Fisher’s powerful commentary breaking this all down in plain language—why this EO isn’t a win, and what’s really at stake. Watch it now HERE