The Texas state legislature is eyeing a slew of bills that would relax vaccine requirements after Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s concerns about vaccine policy sparked a national debate on the subject.
On Wednesday afternoon, Kennedy, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, faced intense criticism during a Senate confirmation hearing over his critical comments about many vaccines. But even as he was grilled on the subject, Texas lawmakers considered more than 20 bills that backed Kennedy’s position on vaccine policies, with the news coming as popular support for vaccine exemptions appears to have grown in the Lone Star state.
Texas resident Rebecca Hardy, who leads a “Vaccine Choice” advocacy group, told the Texas Tribune that in 2014, just over a decade ago, “it was really hard to find people willing to put their names on protective pieces of legislation.”
Now, her group has pushed nearly two dozen bills through the state legislature. Meanwhile, applications to the Texas Department of State Health Services for vaccine exemptions have doubled since 2018.
The growing momentum behind vaccine reform in Texas comes after Kennedy propelled the vaccine debate to the forefront of national consciousness during his 2024 presidential campaign.
Kennedy raised questions about the safety of many vaccines, saying they could be linked to a steep increase in chronic diseases such as autism, criticizing a 1986 law giving vaccine manufacturers immunity from lawsuits surrounding vaccine injuries, and arguing that vaccines mandated for children do not have a “single pre-licensing safety trial, placebo-controlled [study],” making them essentially “zero-liability” vaccines.
Kennedy’s arguments spurred heated opposition from many critics and those in the medical establishment, who accused the HHS nominee of spewing dangerous disinformation and warning that he wanted to ban vaccines.
However, vaccine skeptics in Texas, such as Hardy and Travis McCormick, who leads a group called Make Texans Healthy Again, mirror Kennedy’s concerns, saying they’re not anti-vaccine, but pro-medical freedom. Although the Lone Star State ranks near the bottom in the country for vaccination rates, critics say Texas laws requiring children to be vaccinated in order to attend schools and childcare centers still restrict personal choice. They also question rules allowing medical providers to deny care to people who delay getting vaccines or decide against inoculations altogether.
McCormick said he was particularly shocked by the medical community’s de facto mandates for infants to be vaccinated after his family welcomed a newborn.
“I had a pediatrician who said if we didn’t get all four (vaccines) in one day, we couldn’t be a client,” he said.
Leading pediatric groups in Texas recommend twelve vaccines for children, with the inoculations being advised by the Centers for Disease and Control to be administered to infants by the time they reach 15 months.
Now, the Texas legislature is debating bills that advocates say could give individuals more choice in whether they vaccinate themselves and their children. While critics term them anti-vaccine, proponents say they simply want more freedom to choose whether vaccines work for them.
Their arguments closely mimic Kennedy’s rhetoric.
“If vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away. People ought to have choice, and that choice ought to be informed by the best information,” he said during an NBC News interview in early November. “So I’m going to make sure scientific safety studies and efficacy are out there, and people can make individual assessments about whether that product is going to be good for them.”
During his Wednesday Senate confirmation hearing, Kennedy continued to respond to “news reports [that]have claimed that I am anti-vaccine.”
“I am neither; I am pro-safety. I worked for years to raise awareness about the mercury and toxic chemicals in fish, but that didn’t make me anti-fish. All of my kids are vaccinated, and I believe vaccines have a critical role in health care,” he told lawmakers gathered on Capitol Hill.
Texas state Sen. Charles Perry, a Republican who is spearheading a bill requiring doctors to report “serious adverse events” potentially linked to vaccinations, told the Texas Tribune he hoped Kennedy could create a “more transparent system” surrounding vaccines if he is confirmed as HHS secretary.
“We like to believe our doctors and our science,” Perry said, but Texans want more data.
Other bills being pushed by Texas lawmakers include SB 117, which would eliminate some of the vaccine requirements schools mandate for students.
Additional House Bills 1082, 1586, and 730, would make it easier for parents to request a vaccination exemption for their children from the state.
Critics of loosening vaccine rules say Kennedy and his allies are inconsiderate of the broader community.
“The vaccine is not only a personal choice, but it’s a social civility act as well. You’re not only taking it for you and your child, but you’re doing it for other people,” Dr. Luis Ostrosky, an infectious diseases physician at UTHealth Houston told the Houston Chronicle last year.
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Advocates for relaxing vaccine mandates argue otherwise.
“If you don’t have the right in what you inject or not inject in your body, then what rights do we have?” Hardy said.