California bill to allow minors to be vaccinated without parental consent is withdrawn

The bill to allow 15-year-old children to take the COVID-19 vaccine without parental consent was shelved after not receiving enough support to pass.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, the bill’s author, announced Wednesday he won’t put the measure up for a vote in the state Assembly because it doesn’t have enough support to pass.

Minors age 12 to 17 in California already can receive vaccinations for hepatitis B and HPV, which prevent sexually transmitted diseases, without permission from their parents or guardians. The bill would have allowed teens 15 and older to receive any vaccine that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, even if their parents objected.

"Existing California law gives minors 12 and older the autonomy to make critical and even life-saving decisions about their own bodies under certain circumstances." Weiner previously said on his website.

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When the bill was originally introduced, the age limit was 12 years old, however, it was later amended to a higher age limit to secure more votes.

The bill, SB 866, narrowly passed out of the California State Senate by a single vote.  On May 12, the senate passed the bill in a 21-8 vote with 11 no votes on record.

Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, blamed the lack of support on "months of harassment and misinformation" by "a small but highly vocal and organized minority of anti-vaxxers."

"The anti-vaxxers may have prevailed in this particular fight, but the broader fight for science and health continues," he said in a statement.

A coalition of groups opposed to vaccine mandates called it a "blatant, dangerous trampling of California parents’ and guardians’ ability to protect and care for their children."

A Voice for Choice Advocacy said minors may not know their full medical history and the potential risks. And if they don’t tell their parents that they obtained the vaccine on their own, the group said parents may not know what’s wrong if their child has an adverse reaction.

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Vaccine consent ages vary across the country. Alabama allows children to consent to vaccines starting at age 14, Oregon at 15 and Rhode Island and South Carolina at 16. Cities including Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., allow children age 11 and up to consent to COVID-19 vaccines, and in San Francisco the age is 12 and older.

The teen consent bill was one of several coronavirus-related bills that faced heavy opposition.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic Sen. Richard Pan both delayed until next year measures relating to school vaccinations, while Democratic Assembly member Buffy Wicks withdrew her bill that would have forced all California businesses to require coronavirus vaccines for their employees.

Another Pan bill, SB1479,  would require K-12 schools, pre-schools, childcare centers and after-school programs to create a COVID-19 testing plan.

If the bill is passed, Pan said the California Department of Public Health will provide guidance to schools about what their plans should include and how they should be implemented. The law would also require schools to report information on its COVID-19 testing program to CDPH. The bill appears to exclude private schools.

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Also still under consideration are a bill by Democratic Assembly member Evan Low that would make doctors spreading coronavirus misinformation or disinformation subject to discipline for professional misconduct, and one by Democratic Assembly member Akilah Weber that would require health care providers, schools, child care facilities and others to disclose certain patient information to the California Department of Public Health and local health officials.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.