Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Opponents Drop Bid to Block California Vaccination Law
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
December 10, 2019

Share

SACRAMENTO — Opponents on Monday dropped their attempt to block California’s new law cracking down on doctors who write fraudulent medical exemptions for school children’s vaccinations.
They had floated two measures that could have put the Jan. 1 law on hold until voters considered overturning it next year, but did not submit more than 600,000 required signatures before Monday’s deadline.
The three official proponents, Denise Aguilar, Heidi Munoz Gleisner and Tara Thornton, said in a statement on behalf of their Freedom Angels Foundation that a “grossly misleading” introduction to the measure “would inevitably make educating the voters to the egregious nature of these laws very difficult.”
The law will allow state public health officials to investigate doctors who grant more than five medical exemptions in a year and schools with vaccination rates of less than 95%, the threshold that experts say means a population is resistant to a disease like measles.
Gov. Gavin Newsom demanded, and won, amendments protecting doctors who previously granted a high number of medical exemptions and removing a requirement that doctors swear under penalty of perjury that they are not charging fees to fill out medical exemption forms or conduct related medical examinations.

Photo of Gov. Gavin Newsom
FILE – This Oct. 8, 2019, file photo, shows California Gov. Gavin Newsom during an interview in his office at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. California’s Supreme Court rejected a state law that would have required President Donald Trump to disclose his tax returns to appear as a candidate in the state’s primary election next spring. The justices on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019 said the law that would have required tax returns for all presidential and gubernatorial candidates to appear on the primary ballot was unconstitutional. The state Republican Party challenged the bill signed into law by Newsom because it was aimed at Trump. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

The Three Women Unsuccessfully Tried to Dissuade Lawmakers and Newsom

The Democratic governor also required a phase-out period for medical exemptions similar to one allowed when California eliminated personal belief vaccine exemptions in 2015. A kindergartner with an exemption can retain it through sixth grade, for instance, while a seventh grader can be exempted through high school.
Opponents were not mollified and vow continued protests.

“If (the law) was as bad as they said it was, then they should be fighting it tooth and nail.” — Sen. Richard Pan
The three women who sought to block the law also unsuccessfully tried to dissuade lawmakers and Newsom from approving it, standing on chairs during a committee hearing and blocking the door to the governor’s office last fall.
They were among hundreds of opponents who packed committee hearings and regularly protested at the Capitol, including a woman who threw human blood from the Senate gallery onto senators below during the closing hours of this year’s legislative session. Another opponent earlier shoved Sen. Richard Pan, who authored the legislation, as he was walking on a street near the Capitol in Sacramento.
Pan criticized the bills’ opponents for engaging in “theater, a stunt” without following through on the ballot measure.
“If (the law) was as bad as they said it was, then they should be fighting it tooth and nail,” Pan said. He was particularly critical of high-profile opponents including actor Rob Schneider and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom he said could have put money behind the ballot measure.
Opponents previously failed to collect enough signatures to contest the 2015 law eliminating the personal belief exemption, and failed in an attempt to recall Pan in 2016. Legal challenges against that earlier law also failed.

DON'T MISS

How About an Honest Conversation About the Range of Light Monument Proposal?

DON'T MISS

UConn Coach Geno Auriemma Breaks NCAA Wins Record With 1,217th Victory

DON'T MISS

Fresno Doctors Will Pay $2.4 Million to Settle Kickback Allegations, DOJ Says

DON'T MISS

Warriors Guard De’Anthony Melton to Undergo Season-Ending Knee Surgery

DON'T MISS

Massive Ground Beef Recall Affects Restaurants Nationwide, USDA Warns

DON'T MISS

Chris Stapleton Wins 4 CMA Awards, but Morgan Wallen Is Entertainer of the Year

DON'T MISS

These Fresno Schools Are Unsafe and in Bad Condition. And No One Is Complaining

DON'T MISS

Putin Says Russia Has Tested a New Intermediate Range Missile in a Strike on Ukraine

DON'T MISS

SEC Chair Gary Gensler, Who Led US Crackdown on Cryptocurrencies, to Step Down

DON'T MISS

Is Fresno Mobile Home Park Controversy Over? Tenants Applaud Federal Judge’s Ruling

UP NEXT

Major Storm Drops Record Rain, Downs Trees in Northern California After Devastation Further North

UP NEXT

Newsom Heads to Fresno, a County That Voted for Trump

UP NEXT

Conservative Professors and Students Are Beating CA Community Colleges in Court

UP NEXT

Thousands of University of California Workers Go on 2-Day Strike Over Wages, Staff Shortages

UP NEXT

Gavin Newsom Pledged to Release His Tax Returns Every Year. The Last One Was for 2020.

UP NEXT

California Governor Will Not Make Clemency Decision for Menendez Brothers Until New DA Reviews Case

UP NEXT

Fewer Kids Are Going to California Public Schools. Is There a Right Way to Close Campuses?

UP NEXT

California Voters Reject Measure That Would Have Raised Minimum Wage to Nation-High $18 Per Hour

UP NEXT

With Democracy Supposedly at Stake, California Voters Stayed Away in Droves

UP NEXT

Volunteers Came Back to Nonprofits in 2023, After the Pandemic Tanked Participation

Warriors Guard De’Anthony Melton to Undergo Season-Ending Knee Surgery

1 hour ago

Massive Ground Beef Recall Affects Restaurants Nationwide, USDA Warns

1 hour ago

Chris Stapleton Wins 4 CMA Awards, but Morgan Wallen Is Entertainer of the Year

1 hour ago

These Fresno Schools Are Unsafe and in Bad Condition. And No One Is Complaining

1 hour ago

Putin Says Russia Has Tested a New Intermediate Range Missile in a Strike on Ukraine

2 hours ago

SEC Chair Gary Gensler, Who Led US Crackdown on Cryptocurrencies, to Step Down

2 hours ago

Is Fresno Mobile Home Park Controversy Over? Tenants Applaud Federal Judge’s Ruling

2 hours ago

Wiggins, Curry Power Warriors to Dominant Win Over Hawks

2 hours ago

Sale and Skubal Claim Cy Young Awards After Historic Pitching Triple Crown Seasons

3 hours ago

What Will Happen to CNBC and MSNBC When They No Longer Have a Corporate Connection to NBC News?

3 hours ago

How About an Honest Conversation About the Range of Light Monument Proposal?

It sometimes seems that we have lost the ability to truly communicate with one another. It is not so much what we say to one another, but ho...

28 minutes ago

28 minutes ago

How About an Honest Conversation About the Range of Light Monument Proposal?

1 hour ago

UConn Coach Geno Auriemma Breaks NCAA Wins Record With 1,217th Victory

1 hour ago

Fresno Doctors Will Pay $2.4 Million to Settle Kickback Allegations, DOJ Says

1 hour ago

Warriors Guard De’Anthony Melton to Undergo Season-Ending Knee Surgery

1 hour ago

Massive Ground Beef Recall Affects Restaurants Nationwide, USDA Warns

1 hour ago

Chris Stapleton Wins 4 CMA Awards, but Morgan Wallen Is Entertainer of the Year

1 hour ago

These Fresno Schools Are Unsafe and in Bad Condition. And No One Is Complaining

2 hours ago

Putin Says Russia Has Tested a New Intermediate Range Missile in a Strike on Ukraine

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend