“West Virginians Need Complete Freedom From Forced Vaccination”

Charleston, WV – On his first official day in office, Republican Governor Patrick Morissey signed an executive order on Tuesday afternoon permitting religious liberty exemptions to school students from the state’s expansive vaccine mandates. 

Prior to this executive order, while being one of the most conservative states in the country, West Virginia’s vaccine laws mirrored states like California and New York, including no exemptions for religious or philosophical purposes. 

Thanks to this new executive order, now West Virginians have recovered a small piece of their constitutionally protected right to make medical decisions for their own children.

While medical liberty activists are celebrating Governor Morrisey’s executive order, they continue to affirm that more work needs to be done. 

Derin Stidd, the West Virginia Field Manager at American Action Fund had this to say: “We are grateful that the Governor took quick action on behalf of medical liberty in West Virginia. This executive order is a step in the right direction in that it provides a pathway for West Virginians to make these key medical decisions for themselves.” 

Stidd added “There’s still work to be done here. The right of parents to make medical decisions for their own children is not ultimately a religious liberty issue. It’s just a plain old liberty issue. It’s the job of parents, and not the state, to make medical decisions for their children. And that’s why we are pushing for a full repeal of vaccine mandates in West Virginia.”

Delegate Chris Anders, a vaccine freedom advocate in the legislature, stated “”While I applaud Governor Morrissey for signing the executive order to stop medical tyranny and allow for religious and philosophical exemptions to mandatory vaccinations, the liberal leanings of our current court system mean this measure could eventually be overturned. To truly protect the individual liberty and medical freedom of West Virginians, we must enact legislation that guarantees full and complete freedom from forced vaccination.”

Liberty legislators in both the House and the Senate will file bills later this month to completely repeal all of the vaccine mandates in West Virginia. American Action Fund will be working to mobilize grassroots support behind these bills.