MPVR IN THE MEDIA
7/15/2023 (updated 7/17/2023)
Mississippi now allows religious exemptions for school vaccinations
JACKSON, Miss. —As of Monday, the Mississippi State Department of Health is offering religious exemption for school vaccinations.
The policy is in response to a federal court order issued in April. The exemption is in addition to the existing medical exemption process, MSDH officials said Friday.
For a religious exemption, a parent or guardian will be required to schedule an appointment at a county health department office and submit Form 139-R, which is available on the MSDH website and at health department locations. During the appointment, the parent or guardian will watch a vaccine education video and will have an opportunity to ask questions. Health department staff will complete the form and submit it to the state epidemiologist for review.
In each exemption process, the parent or guardian will be informed of any vaccine-preventable diseases for which the child has not been adequately immunized and current outbreaks that may prevent the child from attending daycare or school.
MSDH has detailed information about the exemption process on its website.
Read the original article here: https://www.wapt.com/article/mississippi-to-allow-religious-exemptions-for-school-vaccinations/44548473
7/17/2023
Mississippi, under judge’s order, starts allowing religious exemptions for childhood vaccinations
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi is starting the court-ordered process of letting people cite religious beliefs to seek exemptions from state-mandated vaccinations that children must receive before attending day care or school. Mississippi is one of the poorest states and has high rates of health problems such as obesity and heart disease. But it has received praise from public health officials for years because it has some of the highest rates of childhood vaccination against diseases such as polio, measles and mumps. In April, U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden ordered Mississippi to join most other states in allowing religious exemptions from childhood vaccinations. His ruling came in a lawsuit filed last year by several parents who said their religious beliefs have led them to keep their children unvaccinated and out of Mississippi schools. The lawsuit, funded by the Texas-based Informed Consent Action Network, argued that Mississippi’s lack of a religious exemption for childhood vaccinations violates the U.S. Constitution.
Ozerden set a deadline of this Saturday for the state to comply with his order. The Mississippi State Department of Health website will publish information on that day about how people can seek the religious exemptions, according to court papers filed on behalf of Dr. Daniel Edney, the state health officer. “To be clear, Dr. Edney does not endorse Plaintiffs’ views on vaccination or their arguments that the School Vaccination Law is unconstitutional,” wrote Michael J. Bentley, an attorney representing the health officer. Bentley wrote that Edney also does not agree with state Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s position that the Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a law enacted in 2014, provides a religious exemption to the school vaccination law, “though he respects her authority to opine on questions of Mississippi law.” “In Dr. Edney’s view, the School Vaccination Law is constitutional as enacted by the Mississippi Legislature without a religious exemption,” Bentley wrote.
Continue reading original article here:
https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/14/mississippi-under-judges-order-starts-allowing-religious-exemptions-childhood-vaccinations/
6/2/2023
Daily Clout’s Documentary, “The Smooth Stone” Tells the Story of MPVR’s Fight for Religious Exemptions
Originally published by Daily Clout at https://dailyclout.io/dailyclout-exclusive-film-the-smooth-stone/
4/20/2023
The Highwire – Federal Court Victory for Religious Exemptions in Mississippi – Featuring MPVR Leaders, MaryJo Perry & Lindey Magee (VIDEO)
ICAN once again made history this week by winning yet another lawsuit, this time actually reversing the draconian ban on religious exemptions for vaccines in Mississippi. ICAN lead attorney, Aaron Siri along with co-founders of Mississippi Parents for Vaccine Rights, Lindey Magee and MaryJo Perry, join Del to recount their uphill battle that led to this historic victory.
4/18/2023
AP News – Judge: Mississippi Must Give Religious Exemption on Vaccines
Original AP News article posted here.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi must join most other states in allowing religious exemptions from vaccinations that children are required to receive so they can attend school, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden handed down the decision Monday in a lawsuit filed last year by several parents who say their religious beliefs have led them to keep their children unvaccinated and out of Mississippi schools. According to the lawsuit, some of the plaintiffs are homeschooling their children, while others have family or work connections in Mississippi but live in other states that allow religious exemptions for childhood vaccinations.
Ozerden set a July 15 deadline for the Mississippi State Department of Health to allow religious exemptions. The state already allows people to apply for medical exemptions for a series of five vaccinations that are required for children to enroll in public or private school. The immunizations are against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis; polio; hepatitis; measles, mumps and rubella; and chickenpox.
Mississippi does not require COVID-19 vaccinations.
The only states without religious or personal belief exemptions for school immunization requirements are California, Connecticut, Maine, Mississippi, New York and West Virginia, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In response to questions from The Associated Press on Tuesday, health department spokesperson Liz Sharlot declined to say whether the department will appeal the judge’s ruling. She did not say whether the department has an estimate of how many people might seek religious exemptions from vaccinations.
“The Mississippi State Department of Health continues to support strong immunization laws that protect our children,” Sharlot said. “Beyond that, it is our long-standing policy that the Agency does not comment on pending litigation.”
The lawsuit, funded by the Texas-based Informed Consent Action Network, argued that Mississippi’s lack of a religious exemption for childhood vaccinations violates the U.S. Constitution.
“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,” the network said in a statement. “It has simply chosen to not accord an exemption when it is someone’s immortal soul that a parent believes would be at risk.”
One of the families who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit believe “God has created humans with functioning immune systems that were well designed to counteract threats,” the lawsuit said, adding that they only seek out medication “when an intervention is clearly necessary.”
Mississippi once had a religious exemption for childhood vaccinations, but it was overturned in 1979 by a state court judge who ruled that vaccinated children have a constitutional right to be free from associating with their unvaccinated peers, the lawsuit said.
Over the last several years, Mississippi legislators have rejected proposals to allow religious exemptions for childhood vaccinations. Health officials have argued that allowing more exemptions could lead to the spread of preventable diseases.
1/17/2023
American Family Association – THE STAND
LIFE LIBERTY AND THE PURSIUT OF RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION
Published in The Stand Email by The American Family Association on 1/17/22 and can be read here: https://afa.net/the-stand/culture/2023/01/life-liberty-and-the-pursuit-of-religious-exemption/
On Thursday, January 12, 2022, the Mississippi Patriots for Vaccine Rights PAC (MPVR) launched an action alert spurring its recipients to reach out to the Speaker of the state’s house, Phillip Gunn (R), regarding Representative Steve Hopkins’ bill that, if passed, would provide a religious exemption for childhood vaccines in the state of Mississippi.
The alert emphasized that if the bill was set to process through more than one committee this would delay its progression and ultimately has the potential to snuff out the bill altogether. It urged Mississippians to reach out to Gunn imploring him to quickly advance the bill through to only one committee before the January 31st deadline.
So, why religious exemption?
Our forefathers sought out America in order to find freedom and the very government set in place to protect those freedoms has stripped us of so many and we go quietly because it’s “just the way things are.”
We have been conditioned to believe by way of manipulation and fear mongering that the government has this authority, when in reality – the power is the peoples’ and it’s time the people took back the power.
The simple fact that we, as citizens of the United States of America, are having to ask for our religious freedom, dare I say the cornerstone of our country’s birth and building, is quite frankly asinine and backwards.
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” – The Declaration of Independence
With an unsavory laundry list of ingredients including that of Medical Research Counsel cell strain 5 (MRC-5) as well as Wistar Institute Foetus 38 (WI-38), both of which were harvested via means of abortion, MRC-5 being obtained via a fourteen-week-old preborn baby boy and WI-38 a three-month-old preborn baby girl, vaccines become a problem for Bible believing Christians.
Two precious lives cut short in the name of science. We, as believers, cannot serve the Creator of life and support something that takes it.
Period.
This is not to mention the additional research emerging almost daily regarding the corruption of the pharmaceutical industry. When was the last time you read all 18 pages of a vaccine insert or took a look at the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program stats?
But that’s a soapbox … I mean … blog for another day.
As it stands, Mississippi is 1 of 6 states out of 50 and the only red state that does not offer this religious freedom by way of childhood vaccination exemption. Because we have sought the Lord for wisdom on behalf of our babies and have prayerfully stepped out in faith – our children cannot attend school outside of the home, participate in school affiliated sports; they can’t even go to daycare at a local church.
I mean, maybe it’s the version I’m using, but I’m pretty sure Matthew 19:14 doesn’t read, “Let only the vaccinated little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
With our voices together, I believe with strong conviction we can make the difference and shift the tides of medical freedom for our children. Just like with the COVID-19 shot, we fought for religious exemption, and our children should not be the exception.
Even if this isn’t a passion we share, even if you are a believer on the opposite end of the spectrum on the issue of vaccination, I implore you to stand up for basic medical freedoms and stand in the gap for your brothers and sisters who do bear these convictions.
I speak for a large and passionate portion of the Mississippi population when I say, it should be a parent’s informed decision of what vaccines – if any – are right for their child(ren).
Earlier this week I had the privilege of speaking with Mississippi State Senator, Chad McMahan, who had this to say regarding the bill:
“I have a strong record in support of private property rights;
There’s nothing more private than your body or the bodies of your minor children. Individuals and parents should have a religious exception if they have concerns about a vaccine(s). I support a religious exemption based on religious beliefs and the science of health care for individuals. The DNA of each person is unique just as we are unique individuals.”
There is still time to reach out to Speaker Gunn. There is still time to kindly, yet confidently press for this bill to be sent in front of one committee and thank him in advance for his swift action!
Mississippi Speaker Gunn
601.359.3300
pg15@house.ms.gov
Senate Passes Anti-Vaccine Mandate Bill
3/9/22
“The Senate passed a strong, conservative bill which protects employees and children attending school in Mississippi from a COVID-19 vaccine mandate,” said Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann. “I personally support a broader bill providing a religious exemption for vaccine requirements for schools and will support that provision when it is properly before the Senate.”
Read Full Article at Mississippi Today, HERE.
Mrs. Perry’s organization has been aggressively lobbying the legislature to pass a new bill that would get rid of a vaccination requirement to enroll in public schools and recognize religious exemptions.
State Senator Angela Hill has introduced Senate Bill 2107, legislation that would give the state’s parents the ability to use a religious exemption to opt out their children from vaccine mandates imposed by the State Board of Health. However, her bill is being held up by the chairman of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, Democratic State Senator Hob Bryan – who was appointed to that leadership position by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, the presiding officer of the Senate.
Rob Chambers is vice president of policy and legislative affairs at the Mississippi-based American Family Association.
“What we see in plain sight here is a Republican, statewide official – Delbert Hosemann – working with the Democratic Party to kill legislation like this one that would grant religious liberty to people who want freedom from compelled vaccinations,” he summarizes.
A group known as Mississippi Patriots for Vaccine Rights and Medical Freedom isn’t happy with Hosemann – and has launched an online petition telling the state’s second-in-command to urge Senator Bryan to pass the bill out of his committee before February 1.
Chambers – who says the group’s “political outrage” is valid – believes Hosemann has bought into the lies about COVID-19 being pushed by the left.
“We have a body politic that is inoculated from what I believe is conservatism,” he tells AFN. “They are following the dictates of liberal policy that has no basis in fact – even no basis in scientific fact.”
Chambers urges all Mississippians to call their state senators.
Editor’s Note: The American Family Association is the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates AFN.net.
Originally published 1/28/22 by The American Family News Network: https://afn.net/politics-govt/2022/01/28/gop-appointed-dem-blocking-religious-exemption-measure/
