The anti-vaccine movement’s best shot at victory may be the Supreme Court
By Lauren Weber
The anti-vaccine movement’s efforts to change policy beyond courthouses have had mixed success. The Health Freedom Defense Fund, an anti-medical mandate group run by Leslie Manookian, MAHA Action — the political advocacy arm of the Make America Healthy Again movement — and others have been pushing for legislation to eliminate medical mandates, including for vaccines, in at least 12 states.
Manookian and Holland told The Post they felt they had more momentum than ever before, especially in more conservative states. They credited the public backlash to the covid vaccine and Kennedy’s ascent to the top of the nation’s health apparatus. Manookian noted, however, that the bills were introduced in some liberal states and that her group is nonpartisan.
But so far, the laws have been defeated or failed to advance in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Louisiana among others, according to Northe Saunders, president of the pro-vaccine advocacy group American Families for Vaccines. Saunders’s group has lobbied against many of these bills by showing Republicans polling from the party’s own pollsters that says removing vaccine mandates would be unpopular.
“The majority of voters don’t want to remove school vaccine requirements, they don’t want to weaken vaccine policy, and that cuts across all party lines,” Saunders said. “The argument that it’s going to cost them in November is what is slowing down this legislation.”