The founder of Let Them Choose is advising concerned parents to oppose legislation proposed by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), which would allow adolescents to be vaccinated without the permission of their parents.
“It’s not too late to stop this bill,” said Sharon McKeeman, parent and Let Them Choose founder. “It's just been introduced. We're encouraging parents to reach out to their representatives and let them know that if they vote for this, they will not vote for that representative in the future and that they will actively fundraise against them.”
Let Them Choose is a coalition of some 30,000 California parents who advocate for parental rights.
Senate Bill (SB) 145, also known as Teens Choose Vaccine Act, would eliminate the parental requirement for ages 12-to-17-years old for any vaccine that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including the COVID-19 vaccination, according to media reports.
“Even knowing how extreme some of these legislators are, I am surprised that they're already introducing this minor consent bill,” McKeeman told the Southern California Record. “What it says about the legislature is just how extreme they are that this is even something we would be debating. It really shows how out there California is compared to the rest of the nation.”
If passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the proposal would become law as soon as Jan. 1, 2023.
“What’s troubling about this bill is that even if a parent pulled their child out of school and did some alternative form of education, a child could still make the choice to get vaccinated,” McKeeman said. “That's why there was a concern about these vaccine clinics being on campus because that makes it extremely easy for a child to just go to school and get vaccinated if this bill is approved and a parent doesn't even know.”
Another bill, proposed by state Sen. Richard Pan (D–Sacramento), would include the COVID-19 vaccine on a required school vaccine list. In doing so, Senate Bill (SB) 871 would do away with personal or religious exemptions completely, according to media reports.
“This is something that would be unheard of in other states,” McKeeman added. “This is a very extreme bill. In most states in the nation, you can have personal belief exemptions for even the childhood list and to think of minors being able to consent would really be unheard of in most states other than California.”
As previously reported in the Southern California Record, McKeeman and other Let Them Choose members are opposed to the COVID-19 vaccine due to alleged safety issues such as myocarditis, a condition in which the heart becomes inflamed.
“These are the same parents that would then have to be caring for their kids if they ended up with a complication,” she said. “Parents absolutely should be involved in the decision-making process of whether their kid gets the vaccine.”