A national coalition of religious and medical liberty organizations urged President Donald Trump to adopt a plan to restore First Amendment rights in four states — New York, California, Connecticut, and Maine — where unconstitutional vaccine mandates continue to deny children of religious families access to education and health care.
The coalition made the request after addressing a letter to members of President Trump’s newly established Religious Liberty Commission (RLC) that has a mandate from the White House to investigate emerging threats to religious liberty and recommend policies to safeguard fundamental religious rights of all Americans.
Among the signatories are Guiding the Impact (which led the effort), Children’s Health Defense, Teachers for Choice, the MAHA Institute, Physicians for Informed Consent, Autism Action Network, Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, the Global Wellness Forum, and dozens of others.
“Your focus on parental rights, conscience protections, and the First Amendment rights of students aligns directly with the plight of religious families in these four states,” the authors to the RLC noted. “President Trump’s proven commitment to defending religious liberty, as evidenced by his establishment of this Commission, underscores the urgency of restoring the freedom of these families to practice their faith without government interference.”
“We implore the Commission to act swiftly to protect the children and families suffering under these unconstitutional policies,” they wrote.
The coalition requests that an Executive Order be issued by President Trump on Independence Day, July 4, to withhold federal funds from educational institutions that deny religious exemptions to vaccination requirements.
The signatories also urge direct legal action by Attorney General Pam Bondi against New York, California, Connecticut, and Maine for First Amendment violations, and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to prohibit medical providers that receive federal funds from denying non-emergency care based on religious objections to vaccinations, ensuring healthcare access.
“Across faiths — Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and others — believers object to vaccines, particularly those derived from aborted fetal cell lines, viewing their bodies as sacred temples of God,” the letter explained. “These sincerely held beliefs, protected by the First Amendment, are unjustly disregarded by New York, California, Connecticut, and Maine, necessitating immediate action to restore religious liberty.”
The authors noted that religious objections to vaccination, rooted in deeply personal and spiritual convictions include but are in no way limited to:
- Viewing the body as God’s temple, sacred and inviolable by foreign substances.
- Trusting in divine protection over human medical intervention.
- Ethical concerns about vaccines developed using aborted fetal cell lines, which may suggest acceptance of abortion, and supporting companies that use aborted fetal cell lines.
- Beliefs that injecting DNA fragments from aborted fetuses is impure or unclean.
- Objections to vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases, which may imply condoning premarital sex.
- The view that injecting disease to prevent disease is ungodly.
- Adherence to halal dietary laws that conflict with vaccine ingredients.
In one case recently reported by The Daily Wire, a New York high school student was denied medical exemptions seven times despite doctors explaining to school authorities that one or more additional vaccines would likely harm the student’s health.
“The problem really is these New York State Department of Health regulations that were issued in 2019, that led to hundreds of children who had longstanding medical exemptions suddenly getting them revoked,” the girl’s attorney, Sujata Gibson, explained. “Meaning many, many families have had to move out of town, get vaccinated against medical advice — some children have been severely harmed by that.”
“Children with disabilities are required to be accommodated and allowed to attend school,” the attorney said. “And what these school districts are doing is flat-out discriminatory and dangerous to their health.”
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Full text of the June 4, 2025 letter to the White House Religious Liberty Commission:
Dear Members of the Religious Liberty Commission,
The undersigned religious liberty, medical liberty, related organizations, and religious leaders write to commend the establishment of the Religious Liberty Commission and to urge immediate action to address critical violations of religious liberty in four states — New York, California, Connecticut, and Maine — that deny religious exemptions to childhood vaccination requirements for school attendance and cause discriminatory practices in healthcare. These policies unconstitutionally infringe upon the First Amendment rights of religious families, barring children from public schools as well as private schools that wish to accept these children, and denying access to publicly funded medical care based on their sincerely held religious beliefs which prevent these families from injecting their children with one or more vaccines.
We respectfully request that the Commission include specific recommendations in its report to the White House Faith Office and the Domestic Policy Council, including: (1) an Executive Order and legislation to withhold federal funds from educational institutions denying religious exemptions to vaccination requirements, ensuring access to education; (2) legal action by the Attorney General against New York, California, Connecticut, and Maine for First Amendment violations; and (3) regulations and legislation to prohibit medical providers receiving federal funds from denying non-emergency care based on religious objections to vaccinations, ensuring healthcare access.
The United States Constitution enshrines the fundamental right to religious liberty in the First Amendment. As President Trump has stated, “Our Founders understood that no right is more fundamental to a peaceful, prosperous, and virtuous society than the right to follow one’s religious convictions.” The Founders envisioned a nation where religious people and institutions are free to practice their faith without fear of discrimination or hostility from the government. To safeguard this principle, the executive branch has committed to vigorously enforcing the robust protections for religious liberty enshrined in federal law.
