West Virginia Bill: SB 26

Bill Summary

SB 26 rewrites West Virginia’s compulsory school immunization section (§16‑3‑4) to add two broad non‑medical exemptions: a child can be exempt from specific vaccines if a physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner provides a written statement that those shots “are or may be detrimental” or “are not appropriate,” and a child can be fully exempt if a parent, guardian, or emancipated minor submits a written statement citing religious conviction or philosophical belief against vaccination. The bill removes the centralized role of the State Immunization Officer and the commissioner in granting or denying exemptions, instead relying directly on treating providers’ written statements for medical exemptions and on families’ written declarations for religious/philosophical exemptions, and it allows anyone harmed by a violation of this section to seek injunctive relief in court.

Why It Matters to the Make America Healthy Again Movement

The MAHA Movement supports this bill because it transforms one of the nation’s strictest, medical‑only school vaccine regimes into a system that honors religious and philosophical objections and trusts families and front‑line clinicians—rather than a state immunization bureaucracy—to decide when vaccines are inappropriate. By eliminating the Immunization Officer gatekeeper, broadening medical discretion, and creating clear pathways for parents to refuse shots on conscience grounds, SB 26 advances MAHA’s core priorities of medical freedom, parental rights, and real, enforceable limits on vaccine coercion in West Virginia.