Rose Ariadne's Chitchcraft Blog

Dear friends,

Trying to stay on topic here as far as Wicca goes, but a subject has been coming up fairly often within my group of friends lately and I wanted to touch on it. There are many people who choose not to vaccinate their children for health reasons. I have come across a variety of reasons, from fear of developing allergic reactions to autism. Of course, for every piece of evidence I see supporting these claims, I see just as many proving that they do not exist.

I am not here to tell you to vaccinate your children or not. I’m not that political, nor am I a doctor, and I think it’s a personal choice. What I was interested in, however, was what qualified as a “religious exemption.” If you’re not familiar with this concept, it basically excuses children from having some of the vaccinations that are required for school, daycare, and other things due to religious preferences.

I was curious as to whether or not Wicca or Paganism or other earth-based religions would qualify for this exemption and if not, which religions did. In addition, when one fills out such a form I wondered if you had to write down what specific religion you were. That could lead to some interesting things, since not all areas of the country are as open-minded about some religions as they are others. So I did some investigating.

Apparently, all of the states have the exemption to vaccinate per religious exemption. However, the actual rules vary from one state to another. It is also encouraged that you only practice this if you do, indeed, have a religious objection to the vaccinations. Not a medical objection, but a purely religious one. Although a lot of the people that I know that have objections are indeed religious, for the most part their objections are medically based.

Interestingly, in the states in which the religious exemption is restrictively worded so that the person must belong to a church that has a written tenet that opposes the vaccination, there have been challenges at the state level. I rather like this idea because if people weren’t able to challenge it then it would effectively be saying that if you weren’t a member of a church or didn’t practice organized religion you wouldn’t be able to take the exemption.

This answered my biggest question-do you have to belong to one of the “major” religions such as Islam, Christianity, Judaism, or Buddhism in order to qualify for it? No, you do not. However, most states do require that you produce some sort of documentation or demonstration illustrating your beliefs and how they are in opposition to the vaccination. Evidence has to be of a religious nature, which means that you can’t just go in there and say that you don’t want your infant to be vaccinated because you’re afraid that it will increase their chances of dying of SIDS. (Didn’t make that one up, it actually is an argument that many parents have, although he medical community states that there is no direct link.)

Again, I am not trying to sway to do one or the other. Honestly, I don’t feel as though I have enough information on either side to make an educated decision or to even take sides. I was merely interested in the political “how to’s.”

I was also wondering how a Wiccan would support this. Would you use the argument that you only use homeopathic or herb-based medicines and therefore are opposed to the synthetic quality of the vaccine? These are not questions that I have been able to ask fellow Wiccans, but I am very interested in them.

I did find a website that had links to states that had online forms. Most of these had to be turned in at the local health department, although some could be turned in directly to the school itself. They were fairly simple forms and most did not ask for anything specific, such as what particular religion you were practicing. I liked this, as I felt that to ask was a little bit of an invasion of privacy.

Of course, private organizations might still ask for the child to be vaccinated. I haven’t had that much time to do that much research. But on a public school level, it appears that the religious exemption is a valid one.

I was concerned that perhaps there wasn’t enough leeway for a Wiccan to participate in this exemption, but from what I have gathered, it seems to apply to anyone who has a religious objection to it. Of course, what applies to theory might not apply to practice. I welcome any comments regarding this subject matter and am curious if you have taken the exemption and under what grounds your objections were. I am also curious as to whether or not you had to explain your religious preferences when you did, indeed, take it.

In the meantime, I hope that everyone remains healthy and safe.

Brightest Blessings,

Rose Ariadne
Your Warm and Caring “Resident Witch In Charge”