Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier warned the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops to accept students’ vaccine exemptions, lest they risk their state-funded vouchers.
In a letter sent to FCCB Executive Director Michael Sheedy, Uthmeier wrote that it has been brought to his attention that “Catholic schools in Florida might refuse to grant religious exemptions to vaccination requirements for the upcoming school year,” and cited a policy that he called “concerning,” as “Florida law requires public and private schools to exempt students from the vaccination requirements” found in state law.
Uthmeier went on to cite information from Catholic doctrine itself in his argument, noting that vaccines are not a moral obligation.
As parents are the “primary educators of their children,” the attorney general added, the State of Florida’s stance on vaccines “respects parents’ ability to exempt their children from mandated vaccine schedules, regardless of how remote the material cooperation with abortion may be.” Instead of acknowledging and protecting this right, Uthmeier explained that organizations operated by the Catholic Church “now threaten to place an undue burden on parents that would effectively deny them the fundamental right to choose a school that corresponds to their own convictions.”
“I therefore urge Catholic schools to comply with Florida law and grant religious exemptions to school vaccine policies. Failure to comply could jeopardize eligibility for state educational scholarship programs,” Uthmeier wrote.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said during a press conference last year that the state’s health department, “in partnership with the governor, is going to be working to end all vaccine mandates in Florida law.”
“Every last one is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” he declared. “Who am I, as a government, or anyone else, or who am I as a man standing here now to tell you what you should put in your body? Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body?”
Ladapo asserted that he does not have the right to dictate what one puts into their body. “I don’t have that right,” he said. “Your body is a gift from God. What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God.”
