Vaccine exemptions for religious or personal beliefs are rising across the United States. New analyses of national and county‑level data show that more parents are opting out of routine immunizations required for school, even as medical exemptions remain relatively stable.
In recent years, exemption rates have climbed to record highs. National data on kindergartners indicate that the share of children with exemptions from one or more required vaccines has risen to the highest level since federal officials began systematically tracking the figures, driven largely by nonmedical exemptions tied to religious or personal objections. Researchers say the trend began more than a decade ago but accelerated in the aftermath of the Covid‑19 pandemic, which disrupted routine pediatric care and intensified public debates over vaccines.
Post‑Pandemic Surge In Opt‑Outs
Supporters of what they call “medical freedom” say the sharp rise in vaccine exemptions for religious and personal beliefs is a sign that parents are finally reclaiming control over their children’s health care, not a public health crisis. They argue that school vaccine mandates have crept far beyond their original purpose and now trample constitutional rights to bodily autonomy, religious liberty, and parental authority.
At rallies, legislative hearings and school board meetings, parents and activists frequently frame vaccines as one choice among many, not a one‑size‑fits‑all requirement. “Medical choice and medical freedom in all ways is a God‑given and sovereign human right,” from Apalachicola, Florida, mother and grandmother Mary Helms told state lawmakers as she urged them to roll back school vaccine mandates, adding that the state should “favor parental rights and medical freedom” when writing health rules. Another parent advocate, Susan Sweetin, a marketing executive for the National Vaccine Information Center, described how her newborn was rushed off for a hepatitis B shot and later said, “This is not informed consent. That is coercion. Vaccines should never be tied to a child’s education.”
The pattern is not uniform, however, reflecting a patchwork of state laws and local attitudes. All states allow medical exemptions, but only a small group, including California, Maine, Connecticut, and New York, now limit exemptions exclusively to medical reasons after repealing religious or personal belief categories in response to earlier measles outbreaks. In much of the rest of the country, families can still decline vaccines on religious or philosophical grounds, and counties in states such as Arizona, Idaho, Oregon, Utah, and Wisconsin report some of the highest nonmedical exemption rates in the nation.
Political Climate
The political climate in Washington has helped elevate those arguments. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long‑time critic of vaccine mandates, recently announced an investigation into what he called a “troubling incident” in which a school allegedly vaccinated a child “without the parent’s consent and despite a legally recognized state exemption.” “When any institution — a school, a doctor’s office, a clinic — disregards a religious exemption, it doesn’t just break trust, it also breaks the law,” Kennedy said, promising that the Trump administration “will use every tool we have to protect families and restore accountability.” A separate HHS letter has reminded providers that they must respect state laws protecting religious and conscience‑based exemptions to vaccine mandates.
On the policy front, medical freedom groups have scored visible wins. In Florida, the state’s top health officials have pushed to roll back some school vaccine requirements, with backers insisting that “medical choice and medical freedom” should guide state policy rather than deference to national medical organizations. At the federal level, President Donald Trump has positioned himself as a staunch defender of parental rights, barring federal funding for COVID-19 vaccine mandates in schools and emphasizing that families, not bureaucrats, “have the primary role in shaping their children’s educational journey, free from undue bureaucratic mandates.” Together, those moves have convinced many supporters that the medical freedom movement is gaining ground — and that rising vaccine exemptions are, to them, a long‑overdue correction rather than a step backward.
