In Florida, the “Medical Freedom Act” (FL SB 6-D), is effectively dead for Special Session D, which was called by Governor Ron DeSantis and convened on Tuesday, Apr. 28, 2026. This bill would have required parental written informed consent prior to vaccination, added a conscience exemption for mandated vaccines for school attendance, required vaccine exemption forms to be made available online, prohibited pharmaceutical kickbacks to providers for giving vaccines, and more.
NVIC supported SB 6-D. Even though this bill did not contain the removal of and prohibition of vaccine mandates as we had hoped for this session, these changes still made some important improvements that would expand and protect informed consent to vaccinations and the rights of Floridians to refuse vaccination.
Medical Freedom Bill Shut Down In First 15 Minutes
The medical freedom topic was on the governor’s call for the special session and the bill was filed in the Senate and was scheduled to be heard in the Senate Rules Committee on Tuesday 4/28/2026. However, in the first 15 minutes of the special session, House Speaker Daniel Perez unilaterally shut down any path for the bill to move forward.
In his special session introductory remarks (starting about 9:50 minutes in https://housedocs.myfloridahouse.gov/VideoPlayer.aspx?eventID=11266), Speaker Perez said he would bring up redistricting from the governor’s call, but he would not be taking up the other issues on the call (referring to the medical freedom and artificial intelligence bills already filed in the Senate). He claimed it was because there were no bills filed in the House on these topics prior to start of the Special Session D. Representative Perez went so far as to tell the Representatives that after they completed voting on redistricting, they were free to leave to go home on Wednesday. In this one announcement, Speaker Perez prevented any debate for the bill to be heard and considered on its merits in the House of Representatives.
With no path for the bill to move forward in the House, SB 6-D was consequently deleted from the Senate rules committee hearing agenda for Tuesday. Parents who traveled many hours to Tallahassee, including NVIC’s Susan Sweetin, to give testimony in support of the bill had that opportunity taken away.
At this point, it is unclear whether the topics related to vaccine mandates in Florida will be brought up again in another special session of the legislature this year. What is clear is that 1) there wasn’t a single State Representative willing to file a companion bill to SB 6-D, and 2) a loosened grip on children from what Governor DeSantis called the “medical industrial complex” did not happen in this year’s Special Session D.
Research and Show Up to Vote in State Primaries and Elections
The bottom line is that state legislatures have the constitutional authority to make vaccine laws that govern residents of the state. It is important for parents who support voluntary decision-making for their minor children to do their own research and become educated about candidates running for elected positions in their state legislatures. Then, it is important to show up and vote in primaries and elections for candidates who are in alignment with the ethical principle of informed consent to medical risk taking.
Florida has two important elections coming up this year:
- Primary Election 2026 on August 18, 2026
- General Election 2026 on November 3, 2026
One tool that is helpful in becoming educated about candidates is to use Ballotpedia’s Sample Ballot Lookup Tool, found at https://ballotpedia.org/Sample_Ballot_Lookup. You can enter your street address and see who is running in your state’s primaryand then contact those primary candidates to see where they stand on issues important to your family. After the primary election, you can use the same tool for the general election.
NVIC relies on your donations to make our work possible. We have been educating the public about the importance of securing informed consent protections in U.S. vaccine policies and laws since 1982. Voluntary informed consent to vaccination has now become a mainstream issue, and we are making a huge difference by empowering our supporters to educate lawmakers about the importance of protecting informed consent rights in vaccine-related bills as you can see on the NVIC Advocacy Portal.
NVIC needs your financial support to be able to continue and expand our efforts. Please make a donation here.
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