Kansas bill would allow parents to claim religious exemption for all school vaccines

Kansas parents would be able claim to religious exemptions to any school vaccine required for their children without proving their religious beliefs under a bill passed by a Senate committee Tuesday.

The Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee approved the policy combined with a measure that would bar pharmacists from refusing to fill prescriptions for unproven and possibly dangerous for treatments for COVID-19.

Both proposals were sponsored by Sen. Mark Steffen, a Hutchinson Republican and physician who has championed the “off-label” use of drugs such as ivermectin, an anti-parasitic, for the virus. He revealed last week that he is under investigation by the Board of Healing Arts, the state’s medical licensing panel.

Kansas law requires children to be vaccinated against more than a dozen diseases, including polio, measles, diphtheria, mumps, rubella and chicken pox but families can claim religious exemptions. The anti-vaccination bill would prohibit schools or childcare facilities from questioning the sincerity of a family’s religious beliefs if they elected not to have their children inoculated.

The measure follows sweeping religious exemptions granted for employees required to get the COVID-19 vaccine during Legislature’s November special session and expand it to all childhood inoculations.

A spokesperson for Senate leadership said the bill is not yet scheduled for a floor debate.

Lawmakers placed the combined proposal in a House Bill using a procedural maneuver that could speed it through the process and block the House from making amendments during debate. Some committee members objected to the speed with which the vaccination bill was considered.

“This is not just a COVID-19 vaccine, this is all childhood vaccinations and for us to not even have time to fully read the bill and be asked to vote on it is bad policy,” said Sen. Kristen O’Shea, a Topeka Republican.

It comes a day after lawmakers in the House passed a measure warning the state Board of Healing Arts to proceed with “caution” when investigating off-label drug treatments for Covid-19 — treatments that Steffen has promoted. The state board opened 50 inquiries related to the virus, The Star reported.

Steffen is also one of four Republican Senators to vote against overriding Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a congressional district map proposal that would make reelection odds more difficult for Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids. Steffen changed his vote to ‘yes’ when the Senate reconsidered Tuesday afternoon.

Steffen ignored reporter questions Tuesday on the reason for his vote change. But he told the Topeka Capital Journal Monday that “personal liberty” was more important than any map — indicating he may have conditioned his redistricting vote on passage of the bill lifting vaccine requirements and legislation opening the way for off-label COVID treatments.

Senate leadership declined to comment Tuesday. Health committee chair Sen. Richard Hilderbrand said he was not aware of any deals made with Steffen for his redistricting vote.

If the bill on childhood vaccines and off-label drugs is approved in the Senate, it’s unclear how much attention it would get in the House.

During the House appropriations committee, Monday, House Health and Human Services Chair Brenda Landwehr, a Wichita Republican, said she didn’t support such legislation.

“I think that there’s just a lot of misinformation on this issue out there,” Landwehr said. “I would hate for us to make it a bigger issue … than what it actually is today.”

Rep. John Eplee, an Atchison Republican and physician, said he was concerned by the growing anti-science and anti-health sentiments within the Legislature. Adjusting rules for the Board of Healing Arts and opening up exemptions for childhood vaccinations, he said, fixed a problem that didn’t exist.

Eplee said he had had no issues prescribing ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine for patients when he thought it was appropriate and that if the licensing board opened an investigation, they likely have good reason.

“They need to do their job and their job is to protect the public, I guarantee you you don’t get an investigation from the Board of Healing Arts if you’re prescribing drugs off label,” Eplee said. “It’s only done when a prescriber has had issues with dosing or with the type of patient they’re prescribing that for.”

The approval of the anti-vaccine provision marks a major victory for activists. A fringe interest group that got little attention, they gained momentum during the pandemic and secured a major win during the November special session.

Gretchen Homan, a board member at the Immunize Kansas Coalition, said it was “reckless and harmful and dangerous” for the Senate Public Health and Welfare committee to grant approval to the bill.

“Fewer people will get vaccinated, we will have more outbreaks,” she said. “The majority of the state of Kansas, I don’t think would support this and in fact they are busy, they are at work right now … that’s part of the concern is that they are in a sense not allowing for the majority of Kansans to weigh in.”

This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 3:11 PM.