HHS Tells Children’s Vaccine Program Participants They Must Honor Religious Exemptions

'Protecting both public health and personal liberty is how we restore faith to our institutions,' Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said.

Jeff Louderback

Published: 9/5/2025, 1:50:21 PM EDT

HHS Tells Children’s Vaccine Program Participants They Must Honor Religious Exemptions — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on Sept. 4, 2025. (Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times)

Participants in a federally funded children’s vaccination program nationwide must honor religious and conscience exemptions from vaccine mandates, according to a Sept. 4 letter from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights.

The Vaccines for Children Program (VCP) provides vaccines to children whose parents or guardians may not be able to afford them, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“States have the authority to balance public health goals with individual freedom, and honoring those decisions builds trust,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement.

“Protecting both public health and personal liberty is how we restore faith in our institutions and Make America Healthy Again.”

Participation in the VCP requires compliance with state religious and other exemptions from vaccination laws, according to the HHS, which offers operational funding to 61 state, local, and territorial immunization programs.

State or local boards of education may administer the funds.

Vaccine requirements for students to attend school, public and private, are in place in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The District of Columbia and 29 states permit exemptions on religious grounds, while 14 states allow exemptions for religious, personal, or philosophical objections.

Louisiana and Minnesota do not specify if a student’s nonmedical exemption must be for religious or personal reasons.

Medical exemptions are permitted in all 50 states. Five states do not allow exemptions for any nonmedical reason.

In Massachusetts, a proposed bill would remove nonmedical exemptions—including those for religious and philosophical beliefs—for vaccination requirements to attend public schools.

California, Connecticut, Maine, and New York have removed such exemptions over the past decade to increase vaccination rates.

People rally against vaccine mandates and government emergency orders as part of a convoy to Washington, at an I-95 service area in Kennebunkport, Maine, on March 2, 2022. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)

The HHS announcement was released a day after Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said at a press conference that he was working to terminate all vaccine mandates from state law.

The Sept. 4 letter from HHS follows a similar letter sent on Aug. 21 to West Virginia health departments regarding their obligation to honor West Virginia laws permitting religious freedom as a condition for participating in the VCP.

A report released last month by KFF, a nonprofit formerly known as Kaiser Family Foundation, found that exemptions from school vaccination requirements, especially nonmedical exemptions, have increased.

Last month, Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) introduced the Guaranteeing Religious Accommodation in Childhood Education (GRACE) Act.

The proposed legislation would ban federal education funding to schools and local educational agencies that do not provide students with a religious exemption from vaccine requirements for participation in athletics and other activities.

Vaccine safety and efficacy, and vaccine mandates, have been widely discussed since Kennedy took office.

In testimony before a Senate committee on Sept. 4, Kennedy defended the shakeup at the CDC, including the recent termination of its director.

Some Democrats have called on Kennedy to resign, or on President Donald Trump to fire him if he does not.

More than 1,000 current and former employees of Kennedy’s department said in an open letter released on Sept. 3 that he should step down.

They referenced the termination of former CDC Director Susan Monarez, along with federal regulators managed by Kennedy, and Kennedy’s removal of all members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel before replacing them.

Kennedy appeared before the Senate Finance Committee on Sept. 4 to defend the CDC shakeup.

“You’ve stacked the deck to ensure the panel bends to your views,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told Kennedy.

“These changes were absolutely necessary adjustments to restore the agency to its role as the world’s gold standard public health agency, with the central mission of protecting Americans from infectious disease,” Kennedy responded.

“CDC failed that responsibility miserably during COVID,” Kennedy added, referencing how CDC guidance led to the closures of schools and businesses, and masking children as young as 2, while the United States recorded more than 1 million deaths from the virus, according to death certificates.

“That’s why we need bold, competent, new leadership at CDC.”

On Sept. 3, Democratic governors from California, Oregon, and Washington state announced the formation of the West Coast Health Alliance “to ensure residents remain protected by science, not politics.”

In a joint statement, Govs. Gavin Newsom, Tina Kotek, and Bob Ferguson said the “mass firing of CDC doctors and scientists … is a direct assault on the health and safety of the American people.”

T.J. Muscaro and Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

From The Epoch Times