photo by: W.Va. Legislative Photography

State Sen. Ryan Weld and Senate Health and Human Resources Committee Chairwoman Laura Wakim Chapman have differing views on allowing students religious and philosophical exemptions to mandatory immunizations even if a religious or Christian school wishes to still require mandatory immunizations.

CHARLESTON — On the eve of the vote in the West Virginia Senate scheduled today on whether to grant broad religious and philosophical exemptions for the state’s school-age mandatory immunization program, two Republican state senators from the same district — both Catholics — are on opposite sides of the issue.

The body will consider Senate Bill 460 today, relating to vaccine requirements. If a majority of the Senate votes in favor of the bill, it will go to the House of Delegates for consideration.

SB 460 would allow parents and guardians to object to the requirements of the state’s program for compulsory immunization of public and private school children by citing a religious or philosophical belief. The bill allows children to continue to participate in extracurricular activities and it allows for civil suits against schools that discriminate against these students.

SB 460 allows the parent or guardian to present a written statement to the administrator of the child’s school or operator of a state-regulated child care center that the mandatory vaccination requirements cannot be met because it conflicts with the religious or philosophical beliefs of the parent, legal guardian, or emancipated child.

The bill was introduced on behalf of Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who already issued an executive order last month directing the state health officer to accept religious and philosophical exemptions to the school-age immunization mandate.

The amended version of the bill recommended by the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee last week removed a section of Morrisey’s bill requiring public, private, and parochial schools to publicly report the number and percentage of their student population that have been granted exemptions. It also included a provision requiring private and religious schools to grant religious and philosophical exemptions to vaccines even if it is the choice of the religious school to continue abiding by the state immunization mandate.

Senate Health and Human Resources Committee Chairwoman Laura Wakim Chapman, R-Ohio, has been working on the issue of vaccine exemptions since before taking office for her first four-year term in 2023.

Speaking Thursday, Chapman said the changes made to SB 460 were meant to rectify what she sees as the mistake of including private and religious schools in the state’s immunization requirements. Chapman pointed out other sections of State Code that place requirements on religious schools, such as abiding by fire and building codes. She also said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention empower states to regulate immunizations for school attendance for both public and private/religious schools.

“These private and parochial schools did not have this stance back then, but I will say that there’s another statute that says that they must follow our sanitation, attendance, and our immunization policy,” Chapman said. “The CDC also says these laws apply to private schools as well, and so this is not an unusual case. I did not add them to the bill as everybody seems to suggest. They exist in our code now.”

West Virginia has had a compulsory immunization program in place within State Code since 1937, when lawmakers first required school-age children to be immunized against smallpox and diphtheria.

Current State Code requires children attending public, private, and religious schools in West Virginia to show proof of immunization for diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, and hepatitis B unless proof of a medical exemption can be shown. Lawmakers first required private and parochial schools to comply with the mandatory immunization program in 2015.

State Sen. Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, offered an amendment to SB 460 Tuesday with Senate Minority Leader Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, to allow private, parochial, and church schools to continue to require students to abide by the state required immunization program as long as doing so does not violate that religious entity’s beliefs. The amendment failed 10-21.

Speaking in his office Thursday morning, Weld said there are many religious school systems across the country, including the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, that support mandatory immunization programs. According to a 2017 Pew Research Center survey, childhood vaccinations enjoyed wide support from those who identified as Protestant, Catholic, and unaffiliated.

“If the church wants to continue vaccines and have their students immunized against the things that we’re seeing now, – mumps, MMR, diphtheria, polio – then they should be able to continue to do so,” Weld said. “The overarching theme of this bill is religious freedom; that if someone doesn’t want to get a vaccine because it’s not aligned with their religious beliefs, they shouldn’t have to. Okay, that’s fine. But if a school is being run by a religious faith and it’s in line with that faith to continue immunizations, then they should be able to continue to run it as they see fit.”

In a statement released Wednesday, the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston — which has more than 4,600 students across 18 elementary schools and six high schools — said it was “monitoring the current legislation,” according to Tim Bishop, director of marketing and communications. “We have always maintained our constitutional right to order our schools as we see fit in accord with our beliefs.”

Chapman is a practicing Catholic and a graduate of the now-closed Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy, an all-girls Catholic school in Wheeling. While her faith informs how she legislates and she respects the Diocese’s position, she said the individual’s religious beliefs should take precedence.

“Catholic schools admit people who are not of the Catholic faith, and while I do appreciate their stance, they do accept children with perhaps differing faith,” Chapman said. “The other thing is there is a split in the courts. Some courts say it’s up to the church; some courts say it’s up to the child’s beliefs. I don’t know if this will be litigated. I highly doubt it, but if it is litigated, I’m not sure where the Supreme Court will fall. But at the end of the day, this is not an unusual law.”

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 30 states offer a religious exemption to mandatory immunization requirements, while 13 states offer both a religious and philosophical exemption. And two states – Louisiana and Minnesota – do not specify whether a non-medical immunization exemption needs to be for religious or personal reasons.

Weld, also a practicing Catholic who attended Weirton Madonna High School as a freshman, believes that if the bill as currently drafted passes the Senate and is not amended by the House to remove the religious/philosophical exemption for parochial/religious schools, he does see the Diocese filing a lawsuit and being successful in overturning the new law if signed by Morrisey.

“If Madonna — because of the Diocese — wants to continue immunizations because it’s part of their Catholic faith, then they should be able to do so,” Weld said. “That’s their religious freedom that they should be afforded, not just under the federal Constitution, but the Constitution of the State of West Virginia as well. … I would fully expect them to litigate their ability to exercise their religious beliefs.”