Re: MASSACHUSETTS: S.1557 / H.2554 is removing religious exemptions, threatening our kids ...
#1A #MedicalFreedom #Massachusetts
If you’re planning to contact your State Representatives and Joint Committee on Public Health per Call-To-Action alerts sent by Health Action MA (formerly known as Health Choice MA), Stand For Health Freedom (SFHF), Health Rights MA and Children’s Health Defense etc, you may be doing it via their websites using a template pre-written for your convenience.
Unfortunately, pre-written templates may contain trojan horse arguments and self-deprecating verbiage designed to make you sound powerless, begging and willing to say blatant untruths validating Big Pharma’s marketing soundbites inconsistent with reality.
Here’s specifically what I found in the templates offered by the mentioned organizations, where I crossed out language that in my opinion is both unprincipled, self-deprecating and offensive to the First Amendment and the cause of medical freedom.
TEMPLATE offered by Stand For Health Freedom (SFHF): https://standforhealthfreedom.com/actions/s1557
I am writing to urge you to vote NO on S.1557 / H.2554, “An Act relative to vaccines and preventing future disease outbreaks.” This bill would eliminate the religious exemption for school vaccine requirements — a long-standing protection that allows families to make medical decisions aligned with their faith.
This exemption affects a small number of Massachusetts families currently around 1% of the student population and has not been shown to pose a threat to public health. Removing it would unnecessarily infringe upon the religious rights of responsible, caring parents.
Religious freedom and informed consent are core values in a free society. Medical decisions must remain between families and their faith, not dictated by the state. Please stand for the rights of your constituents and oppose these bills.
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TEMPLATE offered by Health Action MA: https://p2a.co/7HoxyHJ
I am writing to express my strong opposition to the bills that would remove the religious exemption to vaccination.
These bills would deny in-person schooling to children who desperately need it, including low-income children, those from communities of color, and those with special needs. I believe that laws that marginalize children and reinforce bias have no place in the Commonwealth.
Moreover, Massachusetts does not have a vaccination problem. We have the highest rates of vaccination and lowest rate of vaccine hesitancy in the country. Our populace is protected. In the past decade, there have been zero outbreaks of vaccine preventable illness in school-age children. Roughly 1% of MA families use a religious exemption, and the majority use the exemption to forgo 1-2 vaccines. Exemptions have had no correlation with MMR vaccination rates or isolated cases of illness. Vaccination rates are steady and higher than they were in past decades.
The real driver of non-ideal vaccination rates in some communities is the ‘gap population’, a term DPH uses to refer to children who do not have full vaccination records and who also do not have any sort of vaccination exemption. Communities of color and low-income communities tend to have higher numbers of students who fall in the categorization of ‘gap population’. These communities need support and access, not unnecessary discriminatory legislation that will cause harm.
I urge you to consider the negative impact that this bill will have on the lives of children and families who rely on in-person schooling, such as those with special-needs and those whose families cannot adequately home school. Baring children from school can cause lifelong economic and health harms, as people with lower education attainment have worse health outcomes and higher mortality. Not only would individuals suffer, but our communities would suffer to as they depend on diversity of thought and beliefs, including religious diversity.
Thank you for your time and attention to this important matter.
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TEMPLATE offered by Health Rights MA https://healthrightsma.org/oppose-ma-bills-that-violate-parental-rights-and-religious-and-medical-freedom:
You can use these templates as a starting point. At a minimum, personalize the first few sentences. It’s also a good idea to write your own subject line. Multiple emails with the same subject line are more likely to be dismissed as “spam” by legislators.
Subject: Oppose: H2554/S1557 Protect the Religious Exemption
Dear [Rep or Senator XYZ],
As your constituent, I am writing to express my strong opposition to bills H2554/S1557 An Act Relative to Vaccines and Preventing Future Disease Outbreaks/An Act relative to routine childhood immunization which propose removing the religious exemption for vaccinations required for K-12 school attendance in Massachusetts.
Our nation was founded on principles of religious freedom, and eliminating this exemption would infringe upon our fundamental rights to practice our faith and make decisions in alignment with our beliefs. Such a move could lead to significant legal challenges against the state, resulting in costly lawsuits and a potential erosion of trust between the government and its citizens.
I urge you to reject bills H2554 and S1557.
Name
Town
TEMPLATE offered by Children’s Health Defense https://alignact.com/go/massachusetts--protect-religious-exemptions-to-vaccines
I am writing to express my deep concerns regarding the bills, H.2554 and S.1557, which seek to eliminate the religious exemption to vaccines, posing loss of education to children whose parents object to vaccines based on deeply held beliefs.
If passed, these bills will:
- Force children out of both public and private K-12 schools if their families make medical decisions based on their sincerely held religious beliefs.
- Deny in-person education to students, including children from underprivileged backgrounds, communities of color, and those with special needs who depend on school services.
- Expand government oversight by requiring all K-12 schools to report both immunization and exemption numbers to the state, including medical exemptions.
- Mandate public disclosure of school-specific immunization and exemption rates, allowing the state to publish exemption data by school, district, municipality, and county.
- Increase pressure and stigmatization on schools and families, and also to doctors who issue exemptions, leading to potential discrimination and loss of parental medical rights.
I urge you to prioritize the rights of your constituents and the future of education in our state by not allowing H.2554 and S.1557 to move forward.
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How about:
“I am writing to express my deep opposition to the bills, H.2554 and S.1557 …”
“I urge you to uphold the God-given Constitutionally protected rights of your constituents and defend the future of education in our state by not allowing H.2554 and S.1557 to move forward.
Oh, but this template is not even customizable!
Of the 3 options above, the only template I would use as-is is Health Rights MA’s template - it’s worded short and to the point, with polite yet assertive tone in my opinion.
Another variation I made based on an edited verbiage from the SFHF template is:
I am writing to request that you vote NO on S.1557 / H.2554, “An Act relative to vaccines and preventing future disease outbreaks.”
This bill aims to eliminate the religious exemption for school vaccine requirements — a long-standing protection that allows families to make medical decisions aligned with their faith.
Please stand for the rights of your constituents and oppose these bills.
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You can also send direct emails from your email box to your two state representatives, Joint Health Committee’s general email and / or individual members of the Joint Committee on Public Health.
Find your Legislators here: https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator
Joint Committee on Public Health: JointCommittee.PublicHealth@malegislature.gov
william.driscoll@masenate.gov,julian.cyr@masenate.gov,Marjorie.Decker@mahouse.gov,Sally.Kerans@mahouse.gov,John.Keenan@masenate.gov,Robyn.Kennedy@masenate.gov,kelly.dooner@masenate.gov,Priscila.Sousa@mahouse.gov,Samantha.Montano@mahouse.gov,Shirley.Arriaga@mahouse.gov,Bruce.Ayers@mahouse.gov,michelle.ciccolo@mahouse.gov,Sean.Reid@mahouse.gov,Amy.Sangiolo@mahouse.gov,Hannah.Kane@mahouse.gov,Justin.Thurber@mahouse.gov
For those who may be new / newer to the medical freedom scene in Massachusetts, I encourage you to talk to people with a few years of experience who may offer you valuable insights, but also always check with your gut on any information you receive.
One of the things that I was personally appalled by early on was a particular talking point that HealthChoice/HealthAction organization has instructed parents to use for many years in Massachusetts and I see it brought up again this year in the HealthAction MA template above as well the SFHF template, specifically:
This exemption affects a small number of Massachusetts families currently around 1% of the student population and has not been shown to pose a threat to public health. Removing it would unnecessarily infringe upon the religious rights of responsible, caring parents.
Essentially this says that because there's such a small minority (allegedly "1%") of people even using religious exemptions in Massachusetts, therefore removing religious exemptions would "unnecessarily infringe upon the religious rights"of "responsible, caring parents".
Here’s the XL elephant in the room:
It doesn't matter if it's just 1% or 22% or 56% or even 100% of students in Massachusetts whose parents choose not to vaccinate on the basis of their religious views. It is by definition EVERYONE's God-given, Constitutionally* protected right and there are absolutely no arbitrary thresholds for vaccination rates in our state that would justify a legislative attempt to strip people of their fundamental rights. The very word “exemption” implies that it’s an exception from the rule, but First Amendment is not limited on a first-come-first-serve basis to the first 1%, 10% or any other magic percentage of people who get to claim it first.
You see NY, CA, ME, CT all lost their religious exemptions under a close guidance of HealthChoice/HealthAction organizations in those states over the recent years.
NJ parents by contrast were not impressed by HealthChoice/HealthAction's self-deprecating talking points and tactics so they made their voices heard loud & clear to their legislators. Parents firmly stood their ground in Trenton, here's a glimpse of what their protests looked and sounded like if you missed it in January 2020:
By contrast, HealthChoice MA (HealthAction MA subsequently) in 2019 held a position that parents wouldn't want to “offend the legislators” by protesting in MA.
On December 3, 2019 at the Joint Committee On Public Health hearing we witnessed such blatant disrespect and gaslighting towards parents, doctors, scientists and attorneys who were opposing government overreach, that even people new to the scene then like myself understood the absolute farce of the process. The auditorium was packed with 600+ people to give their 3min testimonies. Joint Health Committee members were ridiculing parents and medical freedom advocates, giving additional time in the form of Q&A to “experts” peddling big-pharma marketing slogans, while texting and tweeting pro-vax propaganda under their desks instead of listening to the opposition. That hearing lasted till 1.17am the following day as parents poured their hearts out to the obviously non-receptive representatives - all 3 of them left by early evening out of the 13+ I believe who were supposed to hear out the parents.
SO … if you’re going to email your representatives and the Joint Health Committee, I’d keep it short and assertive - they don’t read them anyway, their admins tally pro & against emails and calls for them.
Most importantly, let’s remember who has the actual authority over our own and our children’s bodies and instruct our representatives accordingly. We’re not asking for permission. We are stating our will.
* It is the right as well as the duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons to worship the Supreme Being, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe. And no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; or for his religious profession or sentiments; provided he doth not disturb the public peace, or obstruct others in their religious worship. - Massachusetts Const. Part the First, Art. II.
For reference on the call-to-action alert I received by email:
We need your immediate help to stop two dangerous bills currently making their way through the Massachusetts legislature: S.1618 and S.1557. Both of these bills pose severe threats to parental rights, medical privacy, and access to education, and we must act now to prevent them from becoming law. Use https://healthactionma.org/2025-2026-bills/ to oppose!!!
1. S.1618 — A Direct Attack on Parental Rights and Medical Privacy
S.1618 goes far beyond immunization reporting and seeks to impose sweeping control over personal medical decisions. If passed, it will:
Allow minors to be vaccinated without parental consent or knowledge.
Force parents to apply annually for exemptions through a state-controlled system, putting government in charge of private family decisions.
Require doctors to approve religious exemptions, undermining their professional judgment.
Limit the scope of medical exemptions and grant the Department of Public Health unchecked power to change vaccine requirements without legislative oversight.
Label schools with higher exemption rates as “Elevated Risk,” leading to discrimination, privacy violations, and stigma.
This bill is an overreach of government authority that must be stopped. Take action now by contacting your legislators and demanding they vote NO on S.1618.
2. S.1557 / H.2554 — Removing Religious Exemptions from Schoolchildren
S.1557 is another dangerous bill that would remove the religious exemption for school vaccine requirements. While only around 1% of students use this exemption, its removal would severely limit religious freedom and force families into making a choice between their beliefs and their children’s education.
Religious freedom is not the problem — S.1557 / H.2554 is. This bill would create unnecessary barriers for families, forcing them to conform to state mandates at the expense of their deeply held beliefs. We must protect our children’s right to an education while upholding our right to religious freedom.
Contact your legislators: Tell them to vote NO on S.1557 / H.2554
Share this message with your friends, family, and fellow advocates to ensure we have a loud, united voice on this issue.
Tell your story. Explain why parental rights, informed consent, and religious freedom matter to you.
Both of these bills are coercive and discriminatory and would give the government far too much control over personal medical decisions. It’s time we stand up for freedom, dignity, and the right to choose. Let’s stop these bills before they can do any more harm.
Thank you for your continued advocacy!
For health freedom,
Stand for Health Freedom + Health Action MA
Thank you so much for this urgent article. I will share and take action! 👍