From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— The Libertarian Party of Wisconsin is condemning legislation that would end the state’s personal conviction exemption for childhood vaccinations, arguing the move would undermine parental rights and medical freedom.
The party today issued a release denouncing the bill from Rep. Lisa Subeck, D-Madison, and Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee.
Reese Wood, chair of the LPWI, is urging every member of the state Legislature to oppose “this totalitarian proposal” and reaffirm the state’s respect for individual liberty and “family sovereignty.”
“Social progress comes when people have the authority to develop their own personal convictions and act in a way that upholds them,” Wood said in a statement.
Subeck earlier this month said ending the personal conviction vaccination waiver would help address “alarming” declines in vaccination rates. Her announcement noted the percentage of students in Wisconsin with a waiver for one or more vaccines has nearly doubled over the last two decades, reaching 6.7% in the latest school year.
“Especially at a time when our federal government is spreading misinformation and out-and-out lies about vaccines, we must take proactive steps to keep our communities safe and healthy,” she said in a statement on the bill.
Meanwhile, the LPWI argues the legislation would end “meaningful informed consent,” noting the state currently allows exemptions for medical, religious and personal conviction reasons.
The party says getting rid of the last of these would leave “only narrow medical and religious exemptions, putting what should be an individual’s decision in the hands of either a state-sanctioned expert or a faith-based collective.”
And it decries the bill for seeking to expand the state’s power over the human body while setting a “dangerous precedent” for other prohibitions going forward.
See the release below.
— The Senate Health Committee has approved 3-2 an amended version of a bill to allow those who were harmed by a gender transition procedure as a minor to sue health care providers.
The office of co-author Sen. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield, said the amendment approved on Friday during a paper ballot vote removed a provision in SB 405 that would have required health care providers to provide a notice to patients in order to be protected from a civil action. The notice would have cast doubt on the efficacy of gender transition treatments and stated that some people who have undergone gender treatments as minors “later regretted that decision and the physical harm that these treatments caused.”
The amendment also removed a requirement that a physician attest that a patient doesn’t have any mental health concerns beyond gender dysphoria.
Hutton’s office told WisPolitics the amendment was introduced to satisfy concerns from some committee members.
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Press Releases
– Libertarian Party of Wisconsin: Denounces bill to eliminate personal conviction vaccine exemption
