In Louisiana, parents call the shots.

They always have.

One of the reasons Health Freedom Louisiana exists is to educate the public, our legislators, and other elected officials of the importance of personal belief exemptions for vaccination requirements for school attendance, RS 17:179(E). After the California legislature removed that state’s religious exemption for vaccination requirements for school attendance in 2015, then passed a bill in 2019 that would require state bureaucrats to approve a child’s requested medical exemption, we knew that we needed to circle the wagons in Louisiana and make exemption education a top priority.

Parents have the paramount right to make medical decisions for their children.

After Governor Edwards’ and LDH’s devious efforts to add the covid shots to the required list for school attendance late last year, the significance of Louisiana’s exemption law became evident again this week when the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunizations Practices (ACIP) voted to add experimental (EUA) covid vaccines to the agency’s recommended childhood schedule. In states like Mississippi, West Virginia, California, New York, Maine, and Connecticut, today’s decision surely caused parents significant concern as the recommendation paves the way for states to add the shot to the list for school requirements and parents in those states have no option to attend school other than the rarely granted medical exemption. More often than not, a child must first experience harm from a vaccine before a medical exemption is granted.

Regardless of the CDC’s reckless decision today, the Louisiana Legislature, decades ago, rightfully acknowledged that parents and college students have the right to determine which vaccinations are appropriate for them. RS 17:170(E) states:

E. No person seeking to enter any school or facility enumerated in Subsection A of this Section shall be required to comply with the provisions of this Section if the student or his parent or guardian submits either a written statement from a physician stating that the procedure is contraindicated for medical reasons, or a written dissent from the student or his parent or guardian is presented.

But let’s not forget that a year before the CDC made this disastrous decision, Governor John Bel Edwards and his minions at the Louisiana Department of Health decided the covid shot needed to be required for school attendance here in Louisiana. He initiated the rule change to add the shot in September of 2021, despite knowing at the time that the vaccine did not prevent infection or transmission.

Even after immense public backlash and and a vote against the proposal by the Louisiana House Health and Welfare Committee, Governor Edwards overturned the vote and proceeded to add the shot to the list. AG Jeff Landry filed a lawsuit to halt the initiated rule change and State Representative Larry Bagley sponsored legislation in 2022 to suspend its implementation and yet, incredibly, there were those legislators who thought the addition of the shots to the schedule was necessary.

Republican Senators Fred Mills and Rogers Pope refused to vote on Bagley’s legislation which meant it died in committee. Finally, after another week of intense public backlash, Edwards admitted defeat and announced the rule change would be rescinded. Louisiana would have been the only state in the country to require an experimental vaccine for school attendance.

This is why elections matter.

The CDC’s actions this week pale in comparison to the insanity Louisiana experienced last year because of Edwards’ unethical and illogical efforts to add an experimental drug to the required list for school attendance.

While Edwards was not successful with his mandate, another dimwit Democrat was: Mayor LaToya Cantrell initiated a covid vaccine passport in the city of New Orleans that affected children as young as 5 years old. For over a month, the city required its citizens as young as 5 to present proof of vaccination or a negative covid test to enter certain businesses in the city.

Eighty-six New Orleans public schools were emboldened by Edwards’ actions to request through LDH that covid shots be required for school attendance - a request that was promptly granted on December 16, 2021. Again, the state’s exemption law - a simple “written dissent” - allows parents to be the final determinate on what medical interventions are appropriate for their children.

These insane situations where human zeal and bias for a medical product far outweighed the data or rational thought, emphasize the need to be able to simply say NO to an unwanted medical intervention, whether it’s vaccination, masking, or viral testing. History will not be kind to those in government who usurped their authority to force or coerce an experimental drug on an unwilling populace.

Parents, rest assured that regardless the CDC’s recommendation, YOU call the shots in your home - not a captured government agency or a moronic elected official.

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