CHARLESTON, West Virginia (LifeSiteNews) — New West Virginia Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced an executive order establishing a religious exemption for childhood vaccination requirements that he says is necessary to clarify residents’ rights under a 2023 religious freedom law.
In 2023, previous Republican Gov. Jim Justice signed the Equal Protection for Religion Act, which updated state law by “forbidding excessive government limitations on exercise of religion; forbidding government from treating religious conduct more restrictively than any conduct of reasonably comparable risk; (and) forbidding government from treating religious conduct more restrictively than comparable conduct because of alleged economic need or benefit.”
Announced during the first news conference of Morrisey’s administration as one of 10 executive orders addressing a range of issues, the vaccine order directs state health officials to establish a process for parents to request religious or conscience-based objections to subjecting their children to state-mandated vaccines as a condition of enrolling them in public school, and directs those objections to be honored, with a “writing signed by the objector” being sufficient proof.
“I think most West Virginians care very deeply that our citizens have religious beliefs, and we also know that the First Amendment to our Constitution has specific clauses calling for free association,” the governor said, adding that he hopes the legislature writes a new law clarifying the situation “because when the Equal Protection for Religious Act was passed, it didn’t amend specific laws. So, the vaccine laws stand alone.”
“We cannot compromise individuals and parents’ deeply held religious convictions,” Morrisey declared.
Dr. Steven Eshenaur, health officer for the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, opposes exemptions, arguing that they weaken protection against disease. Morrisey rejected that prediction, arguing that the move places West Virginia back in the national mainstream, and that previously West Virginia was one of just five states that failed to recognize non-medical exemptions for school immunization.
“This order reflects our shared commitment to protecting individual rights while fostering trust in our health care system,” said Republican state Del. Evan Worrell, new chair of the House Committee on Health, in support of the order. “Vaccines have played a critical role in safeguarding public health, but I believe that health decisions should remain a matter of personal choice, made in consultation with medical professionals. It is vital that we balance public health goals with the principles of freedom and transparency.”
The past four years have seen a renewed critical look by many at conventional vaccines and the laws governing them, provoked by the federal government’s lack of transparency regarding the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines that were developed and reviewed in a fraction of the time vaccines usually take under the first Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed initiative.
Attempts to mandate the shots also reignited awareness of the use of cells derived from aborted babies in vaccine development and testing, raising moral objections.
The federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) reports 38,264 deaths, 219,594 hospitalizations, 22,134 heart attacks, and 28,814 myocarditis and pericarditis cases as of December 27, among other ailments. CDC researchers have recognized a “high verification rate of reports of myocarditis to VAERS after mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccination,” leading to the conclusion that “under-reporting is more likely” than over-reporting.
An analysis of 99 million people across eight countries published February in the journal Vaccine “observed significantly higher risks of myocarditis following the first, second and third doses” of mRNA-based COVID vaccines, as well as signs of increased risk of “pericarditis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis,” and other “potential safety signals that require further investigation.” In April, the CDC was forced to release by court order 780,000 previously undisclosed reports of serious adverse reactions, and a study out of Japan found “statistically significant increases” in cancer deaths after third doses of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines and offered several theories for a causal link.
Earlier this month, a long-awaited Florida grand jury report on the COVID vaccine manufacturers found that while a low percentage of the millions of vaccinations resulted in serious harm based on the data it had access to, such events do occur, and there are “profound and serious issues” in pharmaceutical companies’ review process, including reluctance to share what evidence of adverse events they did find.