![]() “We are committed to ensuring that these families have viable child care options in accordance with state and federal law,” department spokesperson Jon Ebelt told the Montana Free Press at the time. Afterward, in October 2022, health department officials said they would not enforce a religious exemption ban in child care centers. The proposal in Montana is similar to one the state Department of Public Health and Human Services floated last year, which a legislative committee temporarily blocked after public health advocates and child care providers objected. “So, as much as religious exemptions for vaccines are not a new issue, they’ve become polarized in a new way.” “It tends to be breaking down much more along red state-blue state lines, where progressive states are moving in the direction of mandating vaccines in more situations and conservative states are moving more in the direction of broadening exemptions,” Ziegler said. ![]() ![]() ![]() West Virginia has never had a religious exemption.īut religious exemptions, fueled by conservative backlash to covid-19 vaccinations, have become caught up in partisan politics, said Mary Ziegler, a University of California-Davis law professor who specializes in the law, history, and politics of reproduction, health care, and conservatism. Until recently, the trend had been going the other way, with four states - California, New York, Connecticut, and Maine - removing religious exemption policies over the past decade. Mississippi began allowing such exemptions for schools and child care centers in July following a court ruling that the state’s lack of a religious exemption violated the U.S. If the state is successful in expanding its policy to child care facilities, it would become the second this year to add a religious exemption to its immunization requirements for younger kids. Montana, like 44 other states, allows religious exemptions from immunization requirements for school-age children. “If it came down to where I had to, I had no choice, I would stop enrolling children today,” Hutzenbiler said. Relieved, because as she scoured the proposed regulations, she found that her facility, which is licensed to care for up to 15 children, would be in a category of smaller providers that could choose whether to enroll unvaccinated kids. Dismayed, because allowing more children to claim exemptions could compromise the community immunity levels necessary to defend against highly infectious diseases like measles and pertussis. So, when officials at Montana’s health department revived a proposal that would allow people to claim religious exemptions from immunization requirements at child care facilities, Hutzenbiler was both dismayed and relieved. Part of ensuring that healthy environment is having a strong vaccination policy, she said, especially for those who are immunocompromised or too young to receive the full slate of childhood vaccines. “These families came to me knowing we could offer them a safe and healthy environment,” Hutzenbiler said. The kids, who range in age from 4 months to 9 years, have conditions that include fetal alcohol syndrome, cystic fibrosis, and Down syndrome, according to owner Sheryl Hutzenbiler. More than half the children who attend Munchkin Land Daycare near Billings, Montana, have special needs or compromised immune systems.
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