Parents Losing Choice to Vaccinate Children

Parents no longer have the choice to vaccinate their children. Tuesday morning, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill 277. It makes it mandatory for all children to be vaccinated, it generated fierce debate and thousands of people in California are upset about it.

With the new law, kids must be immunized before entering school or day-care and a religious or personal exemption no longer exists.

The measles outbreak in Disneyland late last year in which over 100 people were infected brought up major concerns about children who were not vaccinated and SB 277 was presented

Senator Richard Pan said "It’s a bill that’s really about protecting all of our children, all our children who are attending school who are out in our community."

The bill is now one of the strictest school vaccination laws in the country but thousands of parents who protested against mandatory vaccination say they’re losing their parental rights. "It makes me sick. It makes me sick knowing that there’s going to be a lot more children out there who are going to suffer like I did," Candice Shumaker said.

Shumaker says she began having seizures at 15 weeks old and believes they were triggered by the vaccines causing medical conditions which lead to two brain surgeries at age 19. "I’m willing to leave California, I’m willing to home school. Whatever I have to do to protect my daughter from what has damaged and hurt 5 people in my family," Shumaker said.

But health care providers say people will be better protected as a result of the bill. Kaiser Permanente’s Physician in Chief said "Vaccination is a very very important public health measure because it protects our children and adults from infectious diseases."

The law applies to public and private schools along with day care facilities. Medical exemptions would still be granted to children with serious health issues and children whose parents refuse vaccination can try to obtain a medical exemption or have them be home schooled.

California joins Mississippi and West Virginia as the only states with such strict requirements.