Two Republican-led bills aimed at restoring religious exemptions for vaccine requirements for schools received a contentious joint public hearing in the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs on Monday, drawing numerous passionate testimonies from both sides of the issue.
“To deny a child the right to an education is nonsensical given the real world reality of exposure in non-school settings. I think of our college students who choose to attend in other states that allow exemptions. These students, most often, go on to secure jobs in the states where they attend college as they set down roots,” said Rep. Tracy Quint (R-Hodgdon, testifying in favor of her bill, LD 727.
“We are sending away our future for arbitrary requirements when we should be embracing them and encouraging them to stay. A family member of mine is going to school in New Hampshire to become a vet tech due to the exemptions allowed there. That was the deciding factor as she was accepted into a program in Maine,” she added.
Quint focused much of her testimony on the fact that, although unvaccinated children may not be allowed in schools, they will be present in all other realms of society, rendering school-specific mandates essentially useless.
“Every Maine parent whose child has been expelled from public school for asserting a religious objection should file a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission. It’s been reported that over 7,000 kids have been removed from Maine public schools-and that number doesn’t include the families who moved out of state,” said Rep. Gary Drinkwater (R-Milford) testifying on his LD 174.
Maine became one of just six states without a religious exemption for school vaccine requirements with the passage of a 2019 law. That law was later upheld despite objections that it violates First Amendment religious freedom protections in a 2020 referendum vote. At the time, nearly 73 percent of Mainers voted to uphold the law, removing the exemption.
Though the two bills were similar enough to warrant a combined hearing, and they have the same primary goals, they take different approaches.
Rep. Quint’s bill drew nine Republican co-sponsors and would broadly repeal provisions in existing law governing vaccine mandates for schools. The bill is titled “An Act to Repeal Certain Immunization Requirements for Schools,” and Rep. Quint’s testimony suggested that it would simply restore religious and philosophical exemptions for vaccine mandates.
The bill text, however, appears to entirely repeal laws surrounding required vaccines for public and private schools, removing the requirement altogether rather than only restoring an exemption.
The Maine Wire reached out to Quint to ask her about this apparent discrepancy, but she did not immediately respond.
Rep. Drinkwater’s bill also drew nine co-sponsors, including Senate Republican Leader Trey Stewart (R-Aroostook), and appears to take a more limited approach. LD 174 inserts language into existing law, restoring religious vaccine exemptions for both students and healthcare professionals.
The hearing on just the two bills lasted over four hours, with many people speaking on both sides of the issue.
One Maine father, Gregory Fox, who previously sued the state for allegedly violating his son’s First Amendment rights by refusing to grant him a religious exemption for school, testified in favor of the bills.
“LD 174 represents the statutory acknowledgment of our God-given rights in the parenting of our children and recognition that in matters of personal conviction we, the believers, must be guided by the Word of God, our conscience, and informed judgment,” said Fox.
“I personally believe that in a public health context, vaccination is a benefit to our population, meaningfully reduces risks and make no assertions that deny the benefits of public health in the prevention of illness or promotion of vaccination. I am a healthcare provider, I am not anti-vaccine, but I am pro-science, an advocate for truth, and a religious objector to vaccination as a condition of enrollment in private and public schools,” he added.
Aaron Siri, a partner at the Siri & Glimstad law firm that specializes in vaccine-related cases and vaccine injury suits, attended the hearing via Zoom to deliver his testimony in favor of the bills to the committee.
“The children who don’t vaccinate do not disappear. They do not remain locked in a closet. They do not simply evaporate. They are still in your state. They are children. They are there. Excluding them from school does not stop them from being part of your society, your communal life, the citizenry of Maine. It’s just punitive,” said Siri.
He argued that it is punitive rather than protective because, in part, the majority of vaccines, according to data from the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC), do not prevent the transmission of a disease.
“When the First Amendment was adopted in the late 1700s, the very first freedom was the freedom of religion, to live your convictions. That doesn’t mean going to church on Sunday, it means living your convictions,” he added.
“Too many children have been disenfranchised by the immunization requirements for school and therefore I support the repeal of them. Inability to obtain a fair and equal education through the state hurts our children, causes undue stress for families, and frankly, is discriminatory. We cannot call ourselves the land of the free and home of the brave and then cast children aside based upon medical decisions made by families and their medical providers,” said Toni Bashinsky of Topsham.
While many appeared to testify in favor of the bills, numerous opponents also testified, along with state and lobbying groups.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services opposed Quint’s bill, claiming that it would make Maine the only state in the nation without some school vaccine mandates and suggesting that it could lead to massive outbreaks of diseases like measles.
“The elimination of these requirements not only threatens the health of students but also increases the likelihood of school and community-wide outbreaks, disrupting education and creating unnecessary burden on our healthcare system and financial burden on the state,” said Maine Center for Disease Control Director Puthiery Va.
Jane Field of the Maine Council of Churches, a Christian group that often testifies in favor of far-left policies, added her organization’s voice to the opposition.
“All of the denominations of our Council support protecting children and adults from diseases that can spread throughout a community and have the potential to cause extreme illness or even death. So, major religions actually encourage vaccination; some even call it a ‘moral obligation,'” said Field.
“Even if there were a religion that prohibited vaccination, we would argue that the need to protect public health would outweigh religious freedom in this case. While the Council is a firm proponent of an individual’s right to practice their religion, we do not believe the exercise of religious freedom should be allowed to pose a risk to public health,” she added.
One pediatrician, Joe Anderson, testified on behalf of the Maine Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, opposing the bills and supporting vaccine mandates for taking difficult decisions out of the hands of parents.
“It kind of takes that decision off of their shoulders,” he said, “We will make that decision for any children who are entering school.”
“We’ve all had conversations with anxious parents who’ve been misled by social media posts or viral videos that trade in fear rather than facts. We do our best to combat these confusing and frightening messages—but fear is a powerful force, and it can be difficult to overcome in the limited time we have with families. These bills would only serve to bolster the misinformation, conspiracy theories, and fringe ideologies that threaten the health of our communities,” he added.
No work sessions have yet been scheduled for either of the Republican-led bills, but ultimately they appear unlikely to pass through the Democrat-controlled legislature.
Parents should be able to make medical decisions for their children.
IDK what the Maine Council of Church’s problem is (lack of critical thinking??), but behold the zeal of bureaucrats to defend their phony-baloney jobs & pediatricians to protect their industry bonuses! DEATHS from childhood diseases became rare as hens’ teeth BEFORE any vaccination schedule was in place. “Public health” is the argument of those who stand to profit from our privately-owned, for-profit “healthcare” cartel. If that cartel were nationalized (so nobody could profit from owning it anymore) & the top 2% (you know, the folks who own 90% of all US wealth) had to pay ALL the taxes wherewith to fund it, I bet vaccine mandates would disappear overnight. I’m waiting for reinstatement of the philosophical exemption as well. People need to be allowed to exempt their children from profit-motivated “medicine” on the grounds that they know the facts, and they understand that if they can’t control what gets put into their own bodies, they’re slaves..
These exemptions should have never been removed in the first place. All of us pay taxes for these schools so we all should have our rights accepted – whether anti vaccine or pro. It is up to the parents and individuals to inject MRNA BIO Tech poisons in their bodies or to be smart and not be injected.