photo by: W.Va. Legislative Photography

Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, expresses support Tuesday for an amendment to the Senate’s bill on childhood vaccination exemptions, but says he will still vote against the bill on the House floor.

CHARLESTON — After weeks since its first hearing in the House Health and Human Services Committee, lawmakers removed a proposed religious and philosophical exemption from a bill dealing with West Virginia’s school-age immunization requirements.

The House Health Committee recommended an amended strike-and-insert amendment to Senate Bill 460, relating to vaccine requirements, to the full House Tuesday evening in a 18-7 vote.

SB 460, as it came over from the state Senate on Feb. 21, would have allowed parents and guardians to object to the requirements of the state’s program for compulsory immunization of public and private school children by citing a religious or philosophical belief. The bill passed the Senate in a 20-12 vote with two senators absent.

After the House received the message from the Senate about the bill’s passage, it was referred to the House Health Committee, which held a hearing on it Feb. 24. But after a lengthy committee meeting that went into the evening, the bill was not taken back up for 22 days.

The updated strike-and-insert amendment to SB 460 adopted by the committee Tuesday removes the religious and philosophical exemptions included in the Senate version of the bill and addressed concerns raised during the Feb. 24 hearing about the strictness of the state’s medical exemption program.

Instead, the amended bill would allow a licensed physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner to submit a written statement to the school administrator or operator of the state-regulated child care center providing a student with a medical exemption for a specific required immunization if that medical professional determines the vaccination could be detrimental to the child’s health or is not appropriate.

“Whether or not we wanted religious or philosophical exemptions or not is irrelevant at this point,” said House Health Committee Vice Chairman Michael Hite, R-Berkeley. “I think this bill shores up the medical exemptions that we heard testimony in here that weren’t happening, that were needed, and that there were issues with. And I think this bill has strengthened those medical exemptions to make sure that those people who testified in this committee will get the exemptions that they need.”

The strike-and-insert amendment would protect physicians, physician assistants, or nurse practitioners from disciplinary actions by a medical licensing board. A successful amendment adopted by the committee would immunize these medical professionals who offer the medical exemption statement to a patient, taken in good faith, from civil liability unless their actions were due to willful misconduct.

The bill also prohibits schools and state-regulated child care centers from preventing children with medical immunization exemptions from participating in extracurricular activities or attending school-based events. Another successful amendment would require physicians, physician assistants, or nurse practitioners to provide to the state health officer statistics on students with medical exceptions in each county.

State code requires children attending school to show proof of immunization for diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella and hepatitis B unless proof of a medical exemption can be shown. West Virginia only currently provides for a narrow medical exemption to immunizations.

The vote on the strike-and-insert amendment to SB 460 had reluctant support from some committee members who wanted to see more freedom for parents and guardians regarding immunizations for their child but would support the updated bill.

“While I … may have liked this bill to come out stronger, I think what we’re actually accomplishing here is fixing a medical exemption that essentially doesn’t exist,” said Del. Ian Masters, R-Berkeley. “Here, we have an opportunity for the doctor actually seeing the child and actually giving the medical advice — boots on the ground — to actually finally have some impact, to at least finally have a medical exemption.”

SB 460, introduced on behalf of Gov. Patrick Morrisey, was based on an executive order signed by the governor in January ordering the Bureau of Public Health and the state health officer to establish a process for religious and philosophical exemptions to school-age vaccines, citing the Equal Protection for Religion Act approved by the Legislature in 2023. Del. Chris Anders said he supported the religious and philosophical exemptions in the original bill.

“Removing these exemptions, as this amendment does, is a direct violation of parental rights,” said Anders, R-Berkeley. “This amendment would force parents to act against their faith, a clear government overreach, the freedom to hold personal, philosophical beliefs without government interference, is a cornerstone of our republic. Forced medical procedures are a hallmark of authoritarian regimes, not a free country.”

Democratic committee members also opposed the bill, though some did support the underlying amendment. Those members urged their colleagues to think about West Virginia’s high rate of immunizations thanks to the current requirements.

“I would urge support of this amendment. I will tell you right now I’m voting against the bill, and I think it’s better than what it was, but it’s still a very dangerous bill,” said Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha. “I know of no religion that would want us to put children at risk, none. And while I believe in parental rights, I don’t think somebody else’s parent has the right to endanger somebody else’s child. But that’s what you get with these types of decisions.”