May 25, 2021
The Pennsylvania Coalition for Informed Consent will join with other concerned citizens and groups from the region to voice their opposition to Senator Amanda Cappelletti’s proposed introduction of a bill to allow children to make vaccine choices without parental consent or knowledge. The event is to take place at Senator Cappelletti’s district office on Wednesday, May 26.
Parents, grandparents, and citizens who work with children are rightfully outraged that this first-term legislator is kicking off her tenure with an extremist proposition that does not seek to serve her constituents. Instead, Cappelletti starts right out of the gate with this overt promotion of nationally coordinated partisan attacks on the authority of parents and traditional role of the parents.
This proposal is in direct contradiction with Pennsylvania’s historic and consistent affirmation of the high value of parental influence and the societal benefit of strong family units.
Not only is it an unethical and egregious assault on parental roles and rights, but this bill would violate several existing legal protections for children. If written similarly to the DC bill, it can lead to criminal violations and civil liability lawsuits by requiring vaccine administrators to falsify records in order to conceal the child’s vaccination status. Coupled with the potential violation of existing religious exemption rights of parents, and the fact that consistent Supreme Court precedent has held that parents have both the duty and the right to direct the care, custody, and control of their minor children, this proposal will invite litigation.
Legislators listened to parents and rejected a total of 33 minor consent bills filed in 2019 and 2020, but, sadly, the District of Columbia, with its unique legislative process, adopted a bill that will allow children as young as 11 to make medical decisions that can permanently alter their physiology, cause known and unknown harm, and even carry the risk of death. These children cannot legally be taken on a school field trip without parental permission, but the government-PHARMA collusion has given them permission to make potentially deadly medical decisions.
This type of government overreach is a danger to children and to society. Should a child suffer a serious adverse event following their secret vaccination, parents and emergency personnel will not know the cause, leaving them clueless as to how to properly treat the patient.
We urge Senator Cappelletti to retract her co-sponsorship memo stating her intention to legislate minor consent for vaccination. We urge all other Pennsylvania Senators to continue to listen to the parents of PA and reject this and any similar legislation that infringes upon parental authority and endangers children.
