Protesters Swarm Calif. Capitol In Last-Ditch Effort To Stop Governor From Signing Controversial Vaccination Bill
But despite some 11th-hour hesitations over the past week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the legislation cracking down on medical exemptions into law. Protesters forced delays in both the Assembly and Senate. They unfurled an upside-down American flag from the Senate's public gallery in a traditional signal of distress and chanted "My kids, my choice" and "We will not comply."
The Associated Press:
California Governor Signs Vaccine Bills He Demanded
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed bills Monday to crack down on doctors who write fraudulent medical exemptions for school children's vaccinations. The Democratic governor quietly acted less than an hour after lawmakers sent him changes he demanded as a condition of approving the bills, even as protesters outside his office chanted for him to veto the measures. (Thompson, 9/9)
Sacramento Bee:
Anti-Vaccine Activists Arrested At CA Capitol Over Law
California families, doctors and schools will soon have to follow new rules restricting medical exemptions for vaccines under two new laws passed by lawmakers and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday. Newsom approved the bills after a day of raucous protests at the Capitol, where opponents of the legislation shut down both chambers of the Legislature and blocked entrances to the building, prompting at least seven arrests. (Bollag and Anderson, 9/9)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California Limits Vaccine Medical Exemptions As Protests Disrupt Legislature
Protesters flooded the Capitol, linking arms to block entrance to the building and repeatedly shutting down the state Senate and Assembly, in a last-ditch attempt to stop the measure.
“This legislation provides new tools to better protect public health, and does so in a way that ensures parents, doctors, public health officials and school administrators all know the rules of the road moving forward,” Newsom said in a statement. (Koseff, 9/9)
KQED:
Anti-Vaccine Activists Swarm Capitol As Lawmakers Pass Bill Limiting Medical Exemptions
"It is my hope that parents whose vulnerable children could die from vaccine-preventable diseases will be reassured that we are protecting those communities that have been left vulnerable because a few unscrupulous doctors are undermining community immunity by selling inappropriate medical exemptions,” said state Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, a pediatrician, who introduced both bills. (Orr, 9/10)
Meanwhile, in Connecticut —
The CT Mirror:
Lawyer For Bristol Couple Fights To Keep School Vaccination Data Private
A lawyer for a Bristol couple that has sued to block the release of school-level immunization data told a judge Monday that, if publicized, the information would be used as “a scare tactic to try to bully people into vaccinating.” Cara Pavalock-D’Amato, a Republican lawmaker who is representing Kristen and Brian Festa, also asked Judge Susan Quinn Cobb not to toss out the lawsuit brought by her clients. (Carlesso, 9/9)
