Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Friday warned Catholic schools that denying religious exemptions from student vaccination requirements could violate state law and threaten their eligibility for state scholarship programs.
In a July 31 letter to Michael B. Sheedy, executive director of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, Uthmeier said he had learned that some Catholic schools may refuse to grant religious exemptions for the upcoming school year.
Uthmeier cited a policy attributed to the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee stating that Catholic schools cannot provide an exemption solely because the Catholic Church does not consider vaccines developed using certain abortion-derived cell lines to be intrinsically evil.
Florida law provides that school vaccination requirements do not apply when a parent submits a written objection stating that immunization conflicts with the family’s religious beliefs or practices. Uthmeier argued that the provision applies to both public and private schools.
The attorney general acknowledged that a religious school could potentially seek its own exemption if accommodating a student would conflict with the institution’s religious teachings. However, he maintained that Catholic doctrine does not require schools to compel vaccination over a parent’s sincere religious objection.
The letter cited Catholic teachings on conscience, parental authority and the moral use of vaccines connected to fetal cell lines. Uthmeier argued that while Church doctrine may permit the use of some vaccines, it also recognizes objections based on conscience.
Uthmeier urged Catholic schools to follow Florida law and warned that failure to comply could jeopardize participation in state-funded scholarship and voucher programs. He requested a written response from the bishops conference by Aug. 7.