Latest news with #SB85
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Alabama lawmaker plans to revive failed religious vaccine exemption bill next year
Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City (center) speaks to Rep. Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, in the Alabama House of Representatives on April 29, 2025 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) A bill that would have made it easier for parents to exempt their children from vaccine requirements failed to advance out of the Alabama Legislature this year. SB 85, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, would have allowed parents to claim religious exemptions from vaccines for their children without requiring them to state a reason. The bill would have also required public colleges and universities to provide medical and religious exemptions to vaccine or testing requirements. But despite the bill's failure to become law, one lawmaker said he's committed to reintroducing the bill and feels confident it will pass in the next session. 'I plan to bring it back and continue to fight. We're going to keep chipping away until we feel like we've got our liberties back,' said Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, who introduced a companion bill in the House, in a phone interview Monday. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The bill would have allowed parents or guardians to object to vaccination or testing requirements by submitting a written statement stating that the vaccination or testing conflicts with their religion as valid grounds for exemption from any school enrollment vaccine or testing requirement. It also specified that no additional forms, fees or documentation could be required of the parent, guardian or child for enrollment in any public K-12 school. The bill would have also extended these provisions to public colleges and universities. Alabama's measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccination rate among kindergartners was 93.8% in the 2023-2024 school year, under the 95% rate set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to achieve herd immunity. An ongoing outbreak in West Texas that started with two unvaccinated school-age children in January has now spread to at least 29 other states. Orr said in a phone interview Friday that an amendment added by Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, which he said proponents of the bill did not like, likely kept the bill from advancing in the House. The amendment would have required a student claiming a vaccine exemption to submit a board-approved physical evaluation form or the Alabama High School Athletic Association's Preparticipation Physical Education form, but it did not have an enforcement mechanism or sanctions for not submitting the form. 'Among the proponents, they were not happy with the Singleton amendment put on in the Senate,' Orr said. 'And among the opponents, they still want to stay with the status quo, which is a bit unnecessary, in my opinion.' Orr added that the House seemed reluctant to take up controversial bills toward the end of the session, adding that Butler would have to be asked for the specific reasons the bill didn't make it to the House floor. The bill passed the House Health Committee two weeks before the session ended, giving it enough time to be considered by the House, but Butler said that tension between the House and Senate toward the end of the session only allowed a number of priority bills to be passed. 'I don't think it was a priority either. The Back-the-Blue (package) was the big priority there at the last minute, which we did get across, but we have got to do a better job of waiting until the last minute on everything,' Butler said. Apriell Hartsfield, Kids Count director for VOICES for Alabama Children, who opposed the bill in its House committee hearing, said Monday that she was concerned about the potential impact on children's health and safety if similar legislation becomes law in the future. She said that declining vaccination rates can threaten community health, potentially leading to outbreaks and increased risk for everyone. She added that fewer vaccinated people lead to a higher risk for others, especially those who are immunocompromised or too young to be fully immunized. 'Our biggest concern are the most vulnerable of the children, and those are the children who are immunocompromised, so that they cannot, medically and for health reasons, get the immunizations, and then, of course, the youngest children, those who are too young to be fully immunized,' Hartsfield said. She said the existing process already allows parents to claim a religious exemption for required vaccines, and safeguards are in place to help public health officials address outbreaks effectively. Butler said he was concerned about the alleged adverse effects of vaccines, particularly the COVID-19 vaccine, saying that 'we're seeing so much, so many adverse effects from mainly the COVID vaccine, and now they're still pushing that out.' While rare adverse reactions related to the COVID-19 vaccine have been reported, such as anaphylaxis or myocarditis, the vaccine is considered safe, and these reactions are significantly less common than the severe health risks of a COVID-19 illness. Hartsfield said that discussions on the COVID-19 vaccine and school-required immunizations shouldn't be grouped together and that it's essential that parents and guardians understand the decades of research behind immunizations required in schools. She said that parents can't truly make an informed decision 'if we are reducing not just the accessibility to the vaccinations, but the accessibility to the information.' 'A lot of the misinformation that's out there, a lot of these things have been debunked over and over and again. It is the right of the parent to choose, but I think it's important that parents know what they're choosing, and that is where public health helps with that,' she said. Hartsfield also pointed to the economic impact that limiting vaccine access could have on the state and communities, saying that non-immunized children exposed to measles must be out for 21 days, which could impact working families. She also said that a measles outbreak or even a single case in a child care setting, which already faces challenges, could force closures. 'Alabama is right in the middle of states that have outbreaks. We don't have one yet, but as Dr. Scott Harris has said, it's really not a matter of if but when this is going to happen in Alabama,' she said. There were 1,024 confirmed measles cases across 30 states as of May 15, according to the CDC, where 96% of individuals are unvaccinated or have unknown vaccination status. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Georgia tort reform aims to change practices in judicial 'hell hole'
With tort reform in Georgia in the books, the celebration cry among Georgia defense attorneys now might be 'we're number three!' That ranking of the Peach State was jokingly referred to by attorney Blair Cash of the Moseley Marciniak Law Firm, a South Carolina-based practice that focuses much of its work on defending trucking companies. Cash, who is based in Georgia, made the comment in a webinar Friday to review a package of tort reforms approved by the Georgia legislature earlier this year and signed in late April by Gov. Brian Kemp. While Cash was enthusiastic about the Georgia tort reform on the webinar, he was careful not to promise too much out of it. 'I really think it is an attempt to just level the playing field a bit, because as has been talked about, Georgia was the number one judicial hell hold for a couple of years,' he said. 'I think now we've fallen back to number three.' The tort reform is not trucking-specific. Rather, it is an attempt to reform certain practices that have been allowed to develop over the years in the state's courts and which the Georgia trucking bar saw as being risks to the state's motor carriers. The key legislation is known as SB 85, from Senate Bill 85. But SB 85 had a companion piece of legislation that also was approved and signed by Gov. Kemp, SB 86, which seeks to bring transparency to privately-funded lawsuits, where a plaintiff that lacks the resources to pursue litigation takes funding from an outside source that would then get a piece of whatever settlement or award was reached in the case. According to both Cash and several law firms that have posted online commentary, SB 85 has numerous provisions, some of which are more procedural to an outsider looking in–like the discovery process being halted while a defendant's request for a dismissal is pending–and others that can more easily be understood by the side of the legal divide that has people behind the wheel and who would be the target of a lawsuit. The end of the 'seat belt gag rule' is one of those provisions. 'In previous years in Georgia, they've all failed to change the state's draconian seat belt admissibility rule,' Cash said. That draconian rule boiled down to this: 'seat belt usage had been not admissible at all,' he said. Cash cited an actual case where a person sitting on a seated lawn mower riding in the back of a truck–so not belted in–suffered 'horrible' injuries when the truck experienced a tire blowout. The man was left a quadriplegic, Cash said. But his lack of seat belt usage was not admissible in the resulting litigation. He said now being able to introduce the seat belt situation of a person injured in an accident may be permissible under the new law. But Cash added that it is not automatic. It may be preferable, Cash said, not to introduce evidence of seat belt non-usage if the crash in question is a rear end accident resulting in impact 'so insignificant that it doesn't even engage the seat belt.' It can come more into play in crashes where the issue is 'injury causation and what the plaintiffs' injuries would have been had they been wearing their seat belt,' Cash said. The part of SB 86 that Cash said would be 'the most interesting to see' is the rule on so-called phantom damages. As the Kennedys law firm said in an online commentary about SB86, the phantom damages provision of SB 86 'allows defendants to present evidence of the actual amounts paid by health insurers for medical care, limiting reliance on inflated billed amounts. Medical expense recovery is now capped at the reasonable value of necessary care, which may be demonstrated through both billed charges and actual payments, regardless of insurance involvement.' Under the current system that would be changed, the impact of insurance reimbursement against a doctor's charges could not be introduced. But with the shift, Cash said, juries will 'get to hear both numbers now, so they get to hear the big number (offered by plaintiffs) but they still hear the number of what is actually necessary to satisfy those charges,' Cash said. He added that he preferred the term 'truth and damages' rather than 'phantom damages.' One unintended consequence of the law, Cash said, is that it may be preferable from a trial lawyer's perspective if a client has no health insurance. The offsetting impact of insurance payment by definition couldn't come in to play. Cash added that SB 86 is silent on handling that situation. Other parts of SB86 discussed by Cash and by attorneys in their online commentaries include these provisions: The 'anchoring' of non-economic damages: Cash cited where an attorney might make an argument along the lines of 'if LeBron James makes this much money, is the client's suffering worth less than that?' As Kennedys said in its commentary, 'this tactic can introduce arbitrary inflated figures that influence juries and contribute to nuclear verdicts.' Under the new law, if that sort of figure isn't discussed earlier in the testimony, it can't suddenly be introduced during a closing argument. Non-bifurcated trial:The current system could involve three steps, Cash said: the actual trial, apportionment of the damages, and then deciding what the damages should be. Each step could involve the same testimony heard multiple times. Bifurcation, according to the Kennedys law firm, would involve just two phases. But it is not mandated; it is an option that can be requested by either party. The companion legislation, SB87, does not make illegal the practice of outsiders funding lawsuits. The law goes into effect January 1, which Cash said would give those funding entities time to comply with what he said were 'onerous:' registration requirements. 'It has the goal of increasing transparency around third party litigation financing and trying to lift back the veil over some of these agreements which we've known existed for a long time,' Cash said. Some judges in the past would require such disclosure, he added, but it was not unanimous. The registration rules are 'not simply a rubber stamp,' Cash said. 'There are some very serious registration requirements that they have to complete.' More articles by John Kingston California deal with 16 states would end key parts of Advanced Clean Fleets rule New Jersey, feds take opposite paths on independent contractor rules State of Freight takeaways: Freight crash may turn into sudden revival The post Georgia tort reform aims to change practices in judicial 'hell hole' appeared first on FreightWaves.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
House committee OKs bill allowing religious vaccine exemptions without stated reasons
A nurse gives an MMR vaccine at the Utah County Health Department on April 29, 2019, in Provo, Utah. The vaccine is 97% effective against measles when two doses are administered. (Photo by) An Alabama House committee Wednesday passed a bill that would allow parents or guardians of children in K-12 schools to claim religious exemptions from vaccinations without providing reasons. SB 85, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, would also require public institutions of higher education to offer both religious and medical exemptions to vaccine or testing requirements. 'The [current] process is cumbersome. Some feel like it's harassment,' claimed Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, who is handling the bill in the House. 'You have to go to the Department of Education, watch a video and sign some stuff, and some parents have really felt harassed by that for their religious liberties and parental rights.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Alabama's measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccination rate among kindergartners was just under 93.8% in the 2023-2024 school year, a decrease from the 95% rate in the 2021-2022 school year, which is considered herd immunity. Apriell Hartsfield, Kids Count director for VOICES for Alabama Children, said immunosuppressed children and infants too young for vaccinations could face consequences if more people choose to skip vaccinations. She said that the current system allows for effective monitoring of exemptions and rapid response to potential outbreaks of contagious diseases. 'This bill, by throwing out a system that works in favor of one that is random and unsystematic, will prevent health officials from being prepared to respond rapidly to outbreaks, and with highly contagious diseases that can spread rapidly, such as measles … time is of the essence, and systems that allow rapid response benefit the public's health,' Hartsfield said during the hearing. Hartsfield said after the meeting that measles outbreaks are particularly dangerous, saying that children don't receive the MMR vaccine until about 18 months of age, making day care centers particularly vulnerable, which could have a negative impact on the economy. She said that if day care centers have to close temporarily, as they did during the height of the COVID pandemic, parents may not be able to get to work. 'What are these parents going to do who are relying on childcare to be able to work and provide for their families? What are these businesses going to do who are relying on their workers to come in and do their job? It's just going to put everybody in a really bad position,' Hartsfield said. One person spoke in favor of the bill. Ted Halley, a Prattville resident who spoke Tuesday in favor of banning drag performances in libraries and public schools, said that vaccines should 'not [be] forced on down our throats.' 'As you know, there's two sides of every coin. Some people love the COVID vaccine. Some people like me hate it,' Halley said, pointing to unfounded claims of adverse effects from the vaccine. Halley also spoke Wednesday in favor of a bill extending the state's 'Don't Say Gay' ban in public schools. Rep. Frances Holk-Jones, R-Foley, asked about the bill's language, specifically the term 'testing,' and asked for clarification on whether it referred to school tests or medical tests. 'Your bill is not specific. It just strictly says all testing,' Holk-Jones said. Butler said that is something they can fix. Rep. Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham, also expressed concern about the religious basis of the exemption, saying that he couldn't find any religious denomination that explicitly forbids vaccines. 'So, I'm just wondering, why don't we just call this what it is, which is a personal exemption, instead of trying to call it a religious exemption?' Rafferty asked, but Butler maintained it is a religious exemption. The bill passed the committee on a voice vote and moves to the House floor for further consideration. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Alabama Senate passes bill expanding religious exemptions from vaccines
Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, speaks to a colleague on the floor of the Alabama Senate on April 3, 2025 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) The Alabama Senate Thursday passed a bill expanding the pool of people who can claim a religious exemption from vaccines and allowing them to do so without explanation. SB 85, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, extends the existing religious exemption requirements from parents of K-12 students to college students. It also would not require either to provide or explain the reason for the exception or have it certified or approved by local school boards. The legislation also mandates that public colleges and universities provide both religious and medical exemptions if they require students to be vaccinated or tested for diseases. The bill passed 26-5. Orr said during the floor debate the current system creates unnecessary hurdles and potential costs for parents exercising their religious beliefs, saying that roughly half the states allow a similar exemption process. 'It's not a discretionary function. It is a mandatory function that they have to give you the religious exemption paper. So, why are we doing that? Let's just let parents affirm that they have a religious exemption,' Orr said to reporters after the Senate adjourned. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Several Democrats raised concerns about public health and the potential spread of disease. The state's measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination rate fell below 94% in 2022-23. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 95% of the population needs to be immunized to achieve herd immunity. Sen. Robert Stewart, D-Selma, said that the state has historically 'worked hard as a state, as a country, to have strong, robust infection control. He said that 'when we talk about religious freedom, we have a duty to keep our communities safe.' 'Public health is a community project, and we should all work together to ensure that our communities are healthy, are viable,' Steward said. Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, proposed an amendment requiring a person claiming a vaccine exemption to submit a board-approved physical evaluation form or the Alabama High School Athletic Association's Preparticipation Physical Education form. The amendment does not provide an enforcement mechanism or sanctions for not submitting the form. The amendment was approved 21-7, 'At least it gives us an understanding that this child has had some medical attention within the last 12 months prior to them opting out of this particular vaccine,' Singleton said. 'If they don't want to take it to go to school, at least the school now you're bypassing the health department.' But Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, wanted the bill to go further and questioned the focus solely on religious exemptions. 'Why do you have to have a… religious exemption? Why can't it just be a conscientious objection? What are the agnostic people going to do? What are the atheists going to do if they don't want to do it?' Melson asked Orr. Orr said that he 'would agree' but that he doesn't think that providing conscientious exemption to vaccines, often referred to as a personal exemption, would pass either chamber. 'It would be more of an uphill challenge than it already is,' Orr said. 'So I would love to do that if I were king for a day, but I'm not king.' Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Birmingham, said she was concerned about removing the Alabama Department of Public Health's role in tracking exemptions. She said that when there may be outbreaks, health departments will be less equipped to trace a potential virus. 'My fear is when we don't leave it there at the health department, then we'll never be able to find out where patient zero is and if there is some type of outbreak, how to be able to bring it under control,' Coleman said. A similar version of the bill passed the Senate last year but failed in the House. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Senate takes up bill to ban mail-order abortion medications
Mar. 28—dbeard @ MORGANTOWN — The state Senate will be voting on a bill to ban the prescription and dispensing of abortion medications by mail order. The Judiciary Committee hashed over SB 85 for a couple hours on Thursday, and it saw its first reading on the Senate floor on Saturday. Lead sponsor Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, serves on Judiciary and told her colleagues the intent of the bill: to stop abortifacients being brought into the state to perform illegal abortions. An abortifacient, the bill says, is any chemical or drug prescribed or dispensed with the intent of causing an abortion. It prohibits sending the abortifacient by courier, delivery or mail service to someone in West Virginia, or placing the abortifacient in the stream of commerce. Anyone other than a licensed medical professional who violates this ban would be subject to felony imprisonment for three to 10 years. A medical professional would be subject to loss of license. The bill contains exceptions for physicians and pharmacists engaged in legal activity. Much of the discussion revolved around lack of clarity in the bill. How would manufacturers and other businesses in the supply chain know if the drug was being used for an abortion or for a legitimate purpose under West Virginia law ? How would the state enforce the law on an out-of-state business or provider ? Rucker cited the example of where a person can go online and obtain abortion pills via website or online clinic. There's no review of the woman's medical history or conditions, and no discussion of the risks. "What I'm concerned abut is ensuring that this stops, " she said. Kelly Lemon, a nurse midwife and women's health nurse practitioner, testified against the bill. There are two medications, known together as the abortion pill, used for abortions. One is mifepristone, that blocks the woman's progesterone, stopping the unborn baby from growing. Then the woman takes misoprostol, which causes cramping and bleeding to empty the uterus. Lemon said misoprostol has other medical uses, including treating postpartum hemorrhaging and preventing sepsis following a miscarriage. The bill could have the unintended consequence of blocking access to legitimate uses apart from abortions. Kristan Hawkins, president of the pro-life Students for Life Action, testified for the bill. She also mentioned the Plan C website and the questionable process of obtaining medications. She talked about its questionable presciption and delivery process. While a provider supposedly reviews a request, the order is immediately sent to the checkout page and is shipped the next day. There's no way of knowing if it was really reviewed by a doctor. She cited the case of a Louisiana mother and an New York doctor indicted for providing an abortifacient to the woman's daughter — who didn't want an abortion. But New York's governor cited the state's shield laws as protecting the doctor from prosecution, and the county clerk where the doctor is refusing to file the judgment — more than $100, 000 — against the doctor, according to news reports. While this case will stir more litigation, she said, civil causes of action and penalties could give abortifacient laws some teeth. (The original version of SB 85 permitted civil actions by the mother, but it was removed from the version the committee approved and the reason for that was never discussed.) Hawkins cited research indicating mifepristone can cause injury, infertility and death, is dangerous for ectopic pregnancies and remains active when it goes into wastewater systems following the abortion. By Dr. Nicole Perry Bryce, a Charleston obstetrician and gynecologist, speaking for the West Virginia chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said mifepristone is safer than Tylenol. The FDA provides guidelines for prescribing and shipping abortifacients, she said, and providers should be free to make evidence-based decisions and guide their patients. The committee amended some of the bill's flaws, but rejected one intended to clarify the shipping question. Rucker said it still needs work. They approved it in a voice vote, with Sen. Joey Garcia, D-Marion, providing the sole vote against.
