Representative Suzie Pollock Archives

Missouri bill would lower school immunization requirements

April 5, 2021 By Alisa Nelson

Missouri children attending daycares, K-12 public schools, or public higher education schools might not be required to get vaccinated against certain illnesses – if they have a “conscientious belief” opposing the immunizations. State Representative Suzie Pollock, R-Lebanon, is proposing the change for vaccinations against polio, rubella, rubeola, mumps, tetanus, whooping cough, diphtheria, and hepatitis B.

Current state law allows student vaccination exemptions for religious and medical reasons.

Her bill would also mean the state’s roughly 120,000 K-12 private, parochial, and parish school students would not have to get those vaccinations.

Missouri Capitol (Photo by Alisa Nelson)

Pollock says the state needs to reign in schools and local health departments.

“They require forms. Some schools and health departments require that the form be put on card stock or have a certain seal, or that they have to make an appointment with a nurse and watch a video. The difficulties just keep mounting and they make it more and more difficult every day,” Pollock says.

The legislation would only require the meningitis vaccination for Missouri college students living in publicly owned housing.

During a House committee hearing, Pollock, a registered cardiovascular invasive specialist, says more than 72 vaccination doses are required of students by the time they are 18, but most in the first four years.

“In 1982, there were 24 doses. And today, there are over 72 doses. There are no studies that they (vaccinations) are making them better,” says Pollock.

Linda Neumann, with the Missouri Association of School Nurses, says 31 doses are required before age 18 – not 72. She tells Missourinet the bill would weaken the state’s immunization requirements for kids at a time when other states are strengthening theirs.

“We believe that childhood immunizations are safe and effective. This is a real pivotal time for us. I hate to see us loosen our requirements,” she says. “Children in – it doesn’t matter what their setting is – whether it’s public, private, or parochial, they all deserve to live healthier and be free of communicable diseases. We have seen what’s happened with COVID-19 and what can happen with a communicable disease.”

Another example she points to is the measles.

“It’s extremely contagious and can lead to all kinds of things that you don’t want like blindness or brain damage, which is possible from the very high fevers. But thanks to the measles vaccine, we went from four million cases annually to in the year 2000, we were declared measles free in our country. But unfortunately the decline in the vaccination rate has led to a return to a measles outbreak,” she says. “In 2019, we had 1,282 cases, I believe, in the United States.”

Neumann cites a study saying about 40% of parents against vaccinations oppose them for philosophical reasons and another 60% oppose them due to inconvenience. She says there has been a huge effort, especially in Missouri, to increase access to students whose parents might not have the means to get their children to an immunization appointment.

“There are schools that have immunization vans come out during the summer to help run kids through before school starts,” says Neumann. “We’re doing everything we can to make it easier on parents, but we need parents’ help too. We understand that there are truly religious exemptions, but we also understand that not having your child immunized just because it’s an inconvenience leads to a bigger population that’s not immunized and we start losing herd immunity. We know that herd immunity works.”

Pollock calls the legislation a freedom bill.

“It separates and weakens government overreach into our private schools, businesses, and property,” says Pollock.

Neumann says she understands that people have rights and liberties.

“But we all have those rights and liberties. We have a right to feel protected from communicable diseases when we have vaccine to prevent these things,” says Neumann.

The Missouri House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee has voted 10-6 in favor of the bill. The House Rules Committee is considering Pollock’s measure.

To view House Bill 37, click here.

Missouri could criminalize sex changes and related treatments

March 6, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The Missouri Legislature is being asked to ban doctors and their workers from assisting with or doing sex changes to those under 18. Representative Adam Schnelting, R-St. Charles, is proposing to charge them with a felony and yank their professional licenses for providing gender reassignments, hormonal therapy and puberty blockers, which are different from surgically changing genitalia. The Missouri House Judiciary Committee held a public hearing this week on the legislation that would also have parents reported to the state for alleged child abuse for letting their kids have a sex change.

Photo courtesy of Tim Bommel, House Communications

“This proposal simply acts as a roadblock for minors who’ve been placed under pressure – whether it’s peer pressure, whether it’s coercion, whether it’s pop culture,” says Schnelting. “So that way they can reach that decision on their own when they come to adulthood. I believe firmly in parental choice and parent rights.”

Representative Gina Mitten, D-St. Louis, argued against the bill backing parental choice.

“Really. I’m sorry but your legislation defies that,” she says.

The committee also heard from Representative Suzie Pollock, R-Lebanon, who is proposing to charge parents with child abuse or neglect for allowing their kids to undergo such services. Pollock is a registered cardiovascular invasive specialist working with heart and circulation issues.

“The side effects for transgender children who undergo these procedures include derility, sexual dysfunction, blood clots, strokes, cardiac disease, osteoporosis, cancer and persistently high rates of suicide,” she says. “Our children are not experimental subjects to use off-label dangerous drugs and procedures on. We must protect our children from being chemically castrated, sterilized and surgically mutilated.”

The line to speak in opposition of the bills was thick and testimony last for roughly a couple of hours. One mother said passage of the legislation would mean lawmakers would have the blood of transgender kids on their hands. Danielle Meert, a mother of a transgender boy, agreed. She said before her son Miles transitioned, he was depressed and struggling in school.

“Since receiving gender-affirming care, Miles is currently on the honor roll. He is thriving and most importantly, he’s alive. If this legislation passes, you will harm my child and children will die,” says Meert.

Shannon Davis, a school psychologist and a mother of a transgender daughter, says before her daughter transitioned, it was like watching her death. Davis says she provides a safe space at school for kids to work out their feelings.

“There are educators who are scared – they are scared to be allies in the schools because they will be targets from parents and administrators. So, while you guys are creating this bill, it makes the educators feel less safe to be allies. You are our leaders. You are the people we look to,” she says. “So if you guys, I’m sorry to say this, feel like bullies, we are more scared to be allies in school.”

Liz Tobin, the mother of a transgender daughter, is a lawyer who has represented children and families in abuse and neglect cases.

“I’ve seen abuse. I’ve seen neglect,” she says. “Providing my child with the standard of care recognized by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists is not abuse.”

Scarlett Wells, a retired disabled Iraq War veteran and a mother of a transgender girl, says she’s proud of her daughter.

“Her courage to live her truth. Her bravery to stand here today. Her perseverance in the face of lawmakers who would call her doctors criminals, who would call her mother, someone who fought for your rights in combat, a child abuser, proves that she is the tallest hero among all of us,” says Wells.

Another message conveyed by some parents is that the families of transgender children and their doctors should be responsible for gender reassignment decisions – not lawmakers.

The committee has not voted on House Bill 1721 or House Bill 2051.