An Alabama lawmaker has filed a bill, HB444, requiring “religiously affiliated” private schools to accept religious exemptions for vaccine requirements.
Sponsored by Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, the legislation states that both religiously affiliated private schools and school churches would be subject to implementing a religious exemption process.
Butler told AL.com that the bill was inspired by concerns raised to him by parents who sent their children to such schools and sought religious exemptions against the COVID-19 vaccine but were denied.
Butler’s legislation also provides that if a school fails to adopt a religious exemption exception then the institution will be penalized in several outlined methods.
“Any private school or church school that fails to accept religious exemptions to vaccine or testing requirements shall be subject to corporate income tax and ad valorem tax, may not claim certain tax exemptions, and is ineligible to receive CHOOSE Act funding”, the bill reads.
Butler said the penalties were necessary because the, “nation was founded on religious liberty.”
Also, the legislation states that a guardian’s written statement will be sufficient to exempt a child from a vaccine requirement under religious reasons.
The politicization of the COVID-19 vaccine has created a surge of anti-vaccination policies and legislation that have been introduced across the country by conservatives.
Since 2021, Alabama has documented a decrease in vaccination rates for children, specifically for polio.
In February, it was reported that an unvaccinated child in Texas died from a measles outbreak in the first death from the diseases since 2015.
Butler was asked about this decline in vaccination rates and responded by referencing a myth that vaccines are linked to autism.
“It went from like seven [vaccines] to like 72 now for infants, and there’s so many that are links to autism and some serious problems there,” Butler said.
When asked to provide evidence for this claim Butler said to Google the information and that, “[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] has been talking about it a lot.”
Kennedy, viewed as an anti-vaxxer, currently serves as Secretary for Health and Human Services under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Butler has also sponsored another bill that would prohibit publicly funded entities from advertising or promoting vaccines.