A parent's decision is not the state's to make.

02 — The reform

Four demands, in plain language.

Each one is drafted as a specific legislative ask, not a sentiment. Together they return the decision to the family and turn the light on the machinery around it.

1. 01

   Restore the religious exemption

   Families with sincerely held religious convictions lost their pathway in 2015. California is now among the strictest states in the nation on this question: one of only a handful, alongside New York, Maine and Connecticut, that allows no religious exemption at all. We ask the Legislature to restore a standalone religious exemption, claimed by written attestation, with no inquiry into the sincerity of a family's faith.

   Repeal the exemption ban in Health & Safety Code § 120335 and reinstate a religious exemption.

2. 02

   Restore informed choice and parental authority

   Restore a personal-belief exemption for parents who have read the literature, weighed the risks and benefits, consulted whom they choose, and reached a decision for their own child — and write into statute that the parent, not the agency, is the primary decision-maker for that child's education and health. The state is a partner in a child's upbringing, not its proprietor. A parent who has done the reading should not be told the question is closed.

   Create a personal-belief exemption requiring written acknowledgement rather than approval, and enact statutory language naming the parent as primary decision-maker, with agency overreach by regulation expressly barred.

3. 03

   Honor professional judgment

   A licensed physician who knows the child should be able to grant a medical exemption without a state reviewer second-guessing the clinical call. Clinical judgment is not a loophole to be closed; it is the practice of medicine. No doctor should feel that being honest with a family, or standing up for a patient, could put their license or their practice at risk. And a medical exemption must be allowed to work preventatively: a family should be able to raise a medically relevant, individualized concern before an adverse outcome accrues, supported by appropriate medical evidence and professional standards, rather than being treated as though a vaccine injury were a prerequisite to consideration.

   Make a physician's exemption final absent a finding of fraud, end routine state review of individual clinical decisions, and shield good-faith clinical judgment from professional discipline.

4. 04

   Transparency and accountability

   Any law that reaches into a family's medical decisions must be able to show its work. That means public disclosure of pharmaceutical industry spending around California legislators, agencies and school health policy, disclosure of industry ties held by members of advisory bodies, and published data, dissenting views and independent audit for every requirement a state agency imposes.

   Adopt disclosure and audit requirements covering industry influence, advisory appointments and agency rulemaking.

06 — Questions

Before you sign.