Mississippi Must Grant Religious Exemptions For Childhood Vaccines, Federal Judge Rules

[Nevilledog]

https://www.mississippifreepress.org/32683/mississippi-must-grant-religious-exemptions-for-childhood-vaccines-federal-judge-rules

Anti-vaccine activists are celebrating in Mississippi after a federal judge struck down the State’s long-standing childhood vaccine requirements for public or private school attendance, saying the State must allow religious exemptions like most others already do. Mississippi is one of just six states that only permits childhood vaccines for medical reasons, with no religious exemptions.

The Texas-based Informed Consent Action Network funded the lawsuit, filed in September 2022, arguing that the lack of religious exemptions for vaccines violates the First Amendment’s guarantees of the free exercise of religion. On Tuesday, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi Judge Sul Ozerden agreed with ICAN’s argument.

The George W. Bush-appointed judge’s order says that starting on July 15, the Mississippi State Department of Health “will be enjoined from enforcing (Mississippi’s compulsory vaccination law) unless they provide an option for individuals to request a religious exemption from the vaccine requirement.” The State could still appeal the ruling, however.

Mississippi’s compulsory childhood immunization requirements include a vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis; for polio; for hepatitis B; for measles, mumps and rubella; and for chickenpox. The State does not mandate COVID-19 vaccines. Mississippi has the highest childhood vaccination rate in the nation, a fact that MSDH has attributed to strict vaccine laws. While other states with more permissive vaccine laws have reported measles outbreaks in recent years, Mississippi has not reported a case originating in the state in decades.

The State once allowed religious exemptions for childhood vaccines, but the Mississippi Supreme Court struck that law down in its 1979 Brown v. Stone ruling.

“Is it mandated by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution that innocent children, too young to decide for themselves, are to be denied the protection against crippling and death that immunization provides because of a religious belief adhered to by a parent or parents?” the justices wrote at the time.

The answer, they decided, was no.

*snip*


I'm so tired of these Christofascists hurting people.

[RegulatedCapitalistD]

1. Say hello to a huge Measles outbreak in Mississippi

[calimary]

3. You mean ... (gasp!) ... consequences?????

I swear, sometimes it makes me want to crawl back into bed and pull the covers up over my head.

WHEN does America SNAP OUT of this shit?

[underpants]

2. Jehovah's Witnesses, who else? Just any "religious belief"?

Get a load of this crap

“The State of Mississippi affords a secular exemption to those with medical reasons that prohibit vaccination, reflecting that it can accommodate students that are unvaccinated,” ICAN said. “It has simply chosen to not accord an exemption when it is someone’s immortal soul that a parent believes would be at risk.”

[Nevilledog]

4. I heard angels singing...IMMORTAL SOUL!!!

[underpants]

6. 😆😆😆👍

[Celerity]

11. I hear the Angelic Upstarts singing! Immortal punk!!

Label: Warner Bros. Records – K 17354 T
Format: Vinyl, 12", Limited Edition, Single, 45 RPM
Country: UK
Released: 6 Apr 1979
Genre: Rock
Style: Punk

[Nevilledog]

13. That's better than my harps and flute shit.

[Celerity]

14. Last Night Another Soldier

Label: Zonophone – Z 7
Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single
Country: UK
Released: Jul 1980
Genre: Rock
Style: Punk

[Aristus]

5. As long as you Mississippians keep your diseased asses in your diseased state,

do whatever the fuck you want.

Don't go traveling to enlightened states like Washington. We don't want your pestilential miasma infecting intelligent people.

[underpants]

7. 😳

[keithbvadu2]

8. Maybe a religious exemption from quarantine for someone with a contagious disease attending their se

Maybe a religious exemption from quarantine for someone with a contagious disease attending their services?

You can't deny my right to worship!

???

Some kids still get mumps, measles, chicken pox, lice.

Bring 'em to church.

[keithbvadu2]

9. Measles outbreaks from religious events

https://www.bing.com/search?q=church+has+measles+outbreak&form=ANNTH1&refig=ed6c62b618844533ae2dc53ee611f2ae

[Celerity]

12. church mice, church lice

[In It to Win It]

10. I'm more shocked that Mississippi didn't have a religious exemption