Rep. Gary Drinkwater is in talks with school board chair Republican Rep. Barbara Bagshaw before the start of a hearing in Augusta on two bills on reducing vaccine requirements at Maine schools. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald
Augusta – At Monday's hearing on two bills rolling back Maine's school vaccine requirements, public health officials and health professionals urged lawmakers to maintain the state's vaccination laws, but parents who chose not to vaccinate their children claimed that families would block access to education.
The first bill, Ld 174, sponsored by R-Milford's Rep. Gary Drinkwater, will restore religious vaccine exemptions. The second Ld 727 is sponsored by R-Hodgdon Rep. Tracy Quint to eliminate vaccine requirements for children attending Maine schools.
The Education and Culture Committee combined the bill into a single hearing on Monday, attracting fewer crowds than similar bills in the past few years.
Maine eliminated philosophical and religious exemptions for school vaccination in 2021 following a voter's referendum on the law that was supported by 73%. That change has shifted from Maine to one of the highest in just two years from the state, one of the lowest childhood vaccination rates.
In 2024, the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the state had reached “swarm immunity.” This means that at least 95% of the population has been immunized.
Before these exemptions were banned, Maine had one of the highest kindergarten vaccine opt-out rates in the country. During the 2017-18 school year, 5% of Maine kindergarteners had no childhood vaccines for religious reasons, compared to the national average of 1.8%.
However, sponsors of two bills heard Monday argued that Maine's rapidly improving vaccination rates are misleading. And they said religious exemptions violate religious freedom and prevent certain students from receiving public education.
During the hearing, public health experts and many parents defended state vaccination advances, pointing to growing concerns about the outbreak of vaccine-preventable diseases elsewhere in the country. However, many parents argued that the ban on religious exemptions had kept their children away from school and protected extracurricular activities like sports.
Rep. Kelly Noonan Murphy of D-Scarborough is sitting with a school board colleague after hearing testimony at a hearing in Augusta on Monday on two bills that would cut vaccine requirements at Maine schools. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald
Solon's Anna Frazier said he would homeschool her son because he hadn't been vaccinated, and as a taxpayer, she would still be able to send her child to public schools.
“that I feel it Like Forced, and the Sad In look my child and Many others face this Separation and Separation from Their fellow. every child Appropriate right In participate in school Activities Regardless of Their vaccination Status,” she said.
Dawn Murray, a parent of five daughters, said her decision not to vaccinate children protects them from public education, sports, music and outdoor travel.
“We live in a society that requires us to embrace beliefs and practices that we don't share,” Murray testified. “But what we are experiencing now with the current vaccination laws is neither true freedom nor universal acceptance.”
Main CDC director Dr. Puthiery VA said the bill would threaten student health and put Maine at risk of an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease. The VA refers to Texas, where her second child recently died of measles, and she said she has one of the most generous school vaccination policies.
Main CDC director Dr. Puthiery VA is opposed to two bills that would cut vaccine requirements for Maine schools. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald
Other health professionals, such as Dr. Joe Anderson, a pediatrician at the Maine chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the Texas outbreak should be a warning to Maine.
“We don't have to imagine what will happen when these protections get weakened. We're seeing it happen in real time. Texas is currently fighting a massive outbreak of measles with nearly 500 reported cases,” Anderson said Maine is one of four states that have increased measles vaccination rates since the pandemic, making a huge difference when it reaches a very continuous illness.
The committee also heard from longtime school nurses like Rebecca Bell from Casco Bay High School in Portland.
“Deleting vaccine requirements is dangerous for children, educators, healthcare workers, especially the families of elderly and immunocompromised people,” Bell testified.
In a question to the speaker, some lawmakers implied that Maine immigrants and refugees were not bound by the same vaccination standards, suggesting that Texas border crossings are responsible for the outbreak of measles.
The doctors and school nurses who testified were pushed back to that position by saying that immigrants and refugees would be held to the same vaccine requirements as all mains. New enrollees at Maine schools that do not have the necessary vaccines, including both immigrants and students who have moved from another state, have the latest bounty period for vaccinations.
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