The Maine Legislature is considering a bill, L.D. 798, that would eliminate personal belief and religious exemptions from vaccinations for all children attending public or private schools and for employees of nursery schools and health care facilities.
The bill is expected to garner significant support from the now-Democratic majority in the House and Senate, and from Gov. Mills.
It’s alarming that state senators and representatives see nothing wrong with forcing someone to comply with a medical procedure. This type of coercion is found only in dictatorships and authoritarian governments.
The undeniable truth is that vaccines are not without risk. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, since 1988, about $4 billion has been awarded to settle claims of vaccine-related injuries and deaths.
In a free country we should be allowed to make rational, informed and voluntary decisions about which diseases and which vaccines we are willing to risk our children’s lives for – without fearing punishment and coercion from the people we elected.
Donna Dodge
Denmark
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