JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A Florida state senator plans to file legislation during special session that would allow parents to claim a \u201cconscience exemption,\u201d or personal reasons, to opt their children out of required school vaccines.<\/p>\n
Senator Clay Yarborough will file legislation identical to Senate Bill 1756, known as the Medical Freedom Act, when special session begins April 28. The original bill passed the Senate but died in the House.<\/p>\n
What the bill would do<\/p>\n
Currently, Florida parents can exempt their children from school-required vaccines for religious or medical reasons. The Medical Freedom Act would expand those exemptions to include personal or moral reasons.<\/p>\n
The bill would also authorize the sale of ivermectin without a prescription as a behind-the-counter medication, require that parents be provided with specific materials before a vaccine can be administered and when applying for an exemption, and make Florida\u2019s existing ban on discrimination based on a person\u2019s mRNA vaccination status permanent.<\/p>\n
Governor Ron DeSantis addressed the bill at a news conference in Jacksonville on March 13.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a lot of moms in particular, you know, they just want to know that they\u2019re doing this stuff eyes wide open and then they\u2019re not being forced or coerced into doing something without having, especially without having all the facts,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n
What Jacksonville parents are saying<\/p>\n
Local parents are divided on the proposed expansion.<\/p>\n
Raines Carr, a teacher and parent, said he supports personal decision-making but expressed concern about the broader public health implications of a conscience exemption in a shared space like a public school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you just need to be very careful when it\u2019s a public situation, that we all need to adhere to certain rules as just a public space, like a public school would be,\u201d Carr said.<\/p>\n
Kenadi Hancock said she supports the expansion because she wants more time to evaluate vaccines being given to her daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cGive parents more time to decide on if that\u2019s what they want for their child or not. But at the same time, I do know some vaccines are proactive and they do keep kids safe,\u201d Hancock said. \u201cSo in a sense, I\u2019m really like still doing my own research on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senator responds by text<\/p>\n
Yarborough was not available for an interview but responded by text message.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe the medical freedom legislation will pass favorably in the Senate during Special Session,\u201d Yarborough said.<\/p>\n
The special session begins April 28.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A Florida state senator plans to file legislation during special session that would allow parents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,77253,4348,105237,56118,9070],"class_list":{"0":"post-236438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-jacksonville","9":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","10":"tag-jacksonville-news","11":"tag-requirements","12":"tag-schools","13":"tag-senator-clay-yarborough","14":"tag-special-session","15":"tag-vaccines"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}