California won’t allow teens age 15 and up to be vaccinated against the coronavirus without their parents’ consent.
State Sen. Scott Wiener (D–San Francisco), the bill’s author, announced Wednesday he won’t put the measure up for a vote in the state Assembly because it doesn’t have enough support to pass.
Minors age 12 to 17 in California already can receive vaccinations for hepatitis B and HPV, which prevent sexually transmitted diseases, without permission from their parents or guardians. The bill would have allowed teens 15 and older to receive any vaccine that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, even if their parents objected.
Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, blamed the lack of support on “months of harassment and misinformation” by “a small but highly vocal and organized minority of anti-vaxxers.”
“The anti-vaxxers may have prevailed in this particular fight, but the broader fight for science and health continues,” he said in a statement.
A coalition of groups opposed to vaccine mandates called it a “blatant, dangerous trampling of California parents’ and guardians’ ability to protect and care for their children.”
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