Vaccine Exemption Bills Face Uncertain Future in Alabama House
HB444 and HB503 have yet to be scheduled in the House Health Committee
Two bills that would expand Alabama’s religious and medical vaccine exemption laws face an uncertain future as the 2025 legislative session draws to a close
With only nine legislative days remaining, HB444 and HB503 have yet to be scheduled for consideration by the House Health Committee. At press time, no meeting of the Health Committee was on the legislative calendar. If neither bill receives a favorable report from the Health Committee they will be effectively dead in this session.
HB444 requires religious-affiliated private or church school to accept religious exemptions to vaccinations if they require vaccinations or testing for disease. It specifies that a parent or guardian’s written statement is sufficient documentation of the religious exemption, and that any private or church school that does not accept religious exemptions will lose their tax-exempt status and be ineligible for CHOOSE Act funding.
HB503 expands Alabama’s existing public K-12 religious or medical vaccine exemption law to public institutions of higher education. It also specifies that a parent or guardian’s written declaration is sufficient for the religious or medical exemption.
Taken together, these two bills expand the state’s religious exemptions for vaccines beyond the public K-12 school system.
SB85, which was similar to HB503, was amended to include a requirement for a board-approved physical evaluation to be completed for a religious exemption to be granted. Despite objections from many health freedom advocates that this placed yet another unnecessary, onerous and unconstitutional burden on parents and guardians, SB85 was passed by the Senate and sent to the House.
Like HB444 and HB503, SB85 has yet to be placed on the agenda for the House Health Committee.
Supporters of these bills cite their 1st Amendment rights to religious freedom as one of their main objections to current policies. They have also cited their opposition to mandated vaccinations, with no or few exceptions made for medical or religious exemptions.
Critics of these bills argue that it is in the interest of the public to widely vaccinate the population, and that the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) is simply following current best practices recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and major medical organizations.
One local grassroots organization, Focus on America, has issued a Call To Action (CTA) for its members and other concerned Alabamians to contact State Representative Paul Lee (R-Dothan), Chairman of the House Health Committee to bring these bills forward for a vote. The CTA also includes contacting the other members of the Committee with the same request.
The current members of the House Health Committee are Reps. Paul Lee (Chair), Craig Lipscomb (Vice Chair), Laura Hall (Ranking Minority), Bryan Brinyark, Susan DuBose, Jeremy Gray, Frances Holk-Jones, Rhett Marques, Arnold Mooney, Marcus Paramore, Neil Rafferty, Phillip Rigsby, Mark Shirey, Jeff Sorrells and Pebblin W. Warren.
One member of the Focus on America Facebook group commented in support of this issue that “This is a natural God-given RIGHT to decide what we put in our bodies and what we don’t. We should NEVER have to “ask permission” to exercise that right that we ALREADY OWN. We have the right to say “no thank you, I don’t want it“ without anyone’s permission. And by asking permission we are giving up that natural right… it’s an admission that you DON’T own the right and that it’s up to someone else to grant it to you. I would straight up fight for the natural right without begging for permission.”
Members of the Alabama House may be contacted through the House website. The Focus on America CTA on Facebook may be found HERE, or on X HERE. Contact information for the House Health Committee members may also be found in the CTAs.
