Mayor Muriel Bowser and other Washington, D.C. officials are being sued over a law that allows children as young as 11 to receive the COVID-19 vaccination without the consent of their parents.
Parents are pushing back on the Minor Consent to Vaccinations Amendment Act, filing lawsuits in the hopes that the law will be ruled unconstitutional.
The D.C. Council voted 10-3 in November to approve the measure that allows minors aged 11 and up to determine if they should get vaccinated in the event that a doctor finds they are capable of informed consent.
Two lawsuits have been filed in D.C. federal court this month that allege that the D.C. vaccination law is a violation of parents’ rights and religious freedoms.
Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit chaired by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., sued Bowser, as well as D.C. Department of Health Director Laquandra Nesbitt and D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee, on behalf of several parents and asserted in the suit that the measure passed in October violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.
"It clearly contradicts multiple requirements of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986," CHD Staff Attorney Rolf Hazlehurst told Townhall. "In essence, the D.C. Minor Consent to Vaccinations Amendment requires health care providers to violate multiple federal laws which are designed to protect the child."
"The Minor Consent Act violates the parents' right to direct the care and upbringing of their children, which is protected by the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment," he continued.
Hazlehurst also said that the act imposes on the religious rights of parents and targets parents seeking religious exemptions from the vaccine, saying that it "substantially burdens their right to freely exercise their religion, in violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act."
The law allows children who have religious exemptions from vaccines, due to filed documents from their parents, to be immunized if they wish. Physicians would leave vaccine records blank and send the records directly to the child's school without parents being notified. Vaccine providers also must receive payment from insurers without the knowledge of the child's parents.
"The Minor Consent Act violates the parents right to direct the care and upbringing of their children, which is protected by the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment," Hazlehurst said. "The Minor Consent Act illegally forces the plaintiffs to choose between sending their children to DCPS schools, or surrendering their rights."
Bowser's office did not respond to the request for comment from Townhall about the lawsuit against her being filed.
A different lawsuit was filed in D.C. federal court in early July by a Maryland man who said that his daughter received a coronavirus vaccine in D.C. without his knowledge or approval, according to The Washington Post. He had objections to the vaccine.
The legislation that allowed minors to seek vaccines came after a 2019 measles outbreak that impacted several U.S. states. The law was passed to counter parents' refusal of their children receiving vaccines due to health concerns.