AB 659 - HPV Vaccine Mandate has been Dropped for Middle School Students.

Dear PERK Members,

Congratulations to all our PERK Members, PERK Team, and PERK Partners.  The HPV Vaccine Mandate has been Dropped for Middle Schoolers! Last night, the amendments on the HPV vaccine mandate bill, AB659, were released.  We knew ahead of time there may be a victory.  It’s incredible that the mandate has been dropped.  THANK YOU! Your hard work is paying off! You keep answering the call to act and fight back with us.  You’ve registered your opposition, send letters, emails, phone calls, talk to your legislators, and more.  We know it takes a village to fight these bills and win in California. 

 On behalf of PERK, I can tell you the PERK Team works tirelessly to fight for you, your children, your medical freedom, your parental rights, and more.  We’ve been on the radio, on podcasts, we’ve flown up to the Capitol in January, February, and March, we’ve done extensive research, and we have met with key people such as the Education Committee Chair, and the author of this bill herself, including the Health Committee members, in order to educate them and to convince them to stop the HPV vaccine mandate bill.  These aren’t quick meetings.  These are sometimes hour-long meetings where we articulate the concerns and bring awareness to the grave issues at hand.  

 When we met with the author of the bill, we directly asked her to drop the mandate portion.  Surprisingly, she was unaware that California would be the only state to mandate the HPV vaccine without real and robust exemption. We addressed the legal issues, the unnecessary mandate, the barrier to education this bill would create on the heels of the pandemic.  I believe our teams were instrumental and sealed the deal at the Capitol as the bill author told us herself about the amendments, prior to their release last night. We asked Assemblywoman Aguiar-Curry to make the bills primarily focuses on insurance coverage, without a mandate.  Now, with the release of the amendments, we can confirm the HPV mandate on school age children is dropped. However, the fight is not over.  The bill now creates a mandate for college students.  We will address that in our next email.

 It's not an easy task to speak to those who disagree with you, yet I am so proud of my team who has done just that.  They have prepared resources to speak to and reach the Democrats, who are key to winning against bills like these.  With months of preparation, my team has given these resources out to you, our members, to other organization leaders, to attorneys, and alerted anyone willing to listen and act, and to do so now.  We have worked in collaboration with strategic partner organizations, other excellent leaders, and experts on the HPV vaccine’s legal issues.  We have amplified their resources.  The PERK team has given you the deadlines, the portal links, examples of what to say, and cheered you on to stand alongside us in this battle.  This is a victory for parents and all those who know choice should never be removed with medical decisions.

 We held meetings with the Democrats and Republicans to voice your concerns. This goes to show that our bi-partisan efforts are working.  Combined with every person's action, letters, and push on this bill, it’s making a difference and will lead to winning this battle.  As I heard the news of the mandate being dropped, my heart is full because of you, all of you. It takes a village, and with all our combined efforts, including yours, WE WILL CONTINUE TO WIN!!

Let’s see what happens over the next few days! Stay tuned.  We will keep all of you updated as soon as we hear anything.

Have a wonderful day and stay in this fight with us!

Amy Bohn

Stay alert for more details on next steps!

Please follow us on Instagram and Twitter @perk_group for latest updates.

Here is summary of the amendments.

• Leaves insurance expansion coverage intact.

• Removes the middle school HPV vaccine mandate to advance to 8th grade.

• Creates a mandatory middle school notice to sent out to all 6th graders that HPV vaccination is expected before moving into the 8th grade instead of mandate.

• Creates a new higher education HPV vaccine mandate for first-time enrollees under age 26 at CCC, CSU and U.C. (all colleges and universities), with only a medical exemption available.

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