16 Albany Democrats Vote to Vaccinate Kids Behind Parents Back

Amy Paulin, Jeff Dinowitz and Rodneyse Bichotte

by Michael Kane

5-20-23

UPDATE: This bill was stopped in 2023, but will be back in January of 2024

For the first time New York parents will be completely cut out of knowing what vaccines are injected into their kids, if Assembly bill A276b becomes law.

On May 16, Assembly bill A276b was passed out of the Health Committee in Albany, NY. The bill allows minors to consent to any vaccine or drug related to STD prevention without parental knowledge or consent. This includes the controversial HPV vaccine Gardasil which is not required to attend any school in New York. This bill has been around for nearly 14 years carried by Assemblywoman Amy Paulin the entire time, yet has never been able to pass a committee vote.

But now that Paulin is the committee chair, she is working hard to get it passed with less than 3 weeks left in the session, with no public comment period or debate scheduled, in a non-election year. So far it has only passed one committee but unless public awareness is raised the bill will become law within the next few weeks.

After the vote Moe Oliver, who was a 23-year veteran NYC teacher fired for declining covid vaccination, expressed his disgust with the fact all of the Black women in the Health Committee voted to strip away parental rights. Moe noted that there were “no Black men” who were on the committee (himself being a Black man) and that “something is wrong in the world” when elected officials discard parental rights so easily.

Footage of the Assembly Health Committee vote has gone viral on Twitter showing the actual vote in the Health Committee as well as some of the aftermath of the vote.

Many long-time New York medical freedom activists were most shocked by the vote of Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte whose past voting record has always been in support of the rights of people and parents to decide what vaccines they do and don’t partake in. In 2019 she voted against the the repeal of the religious exemption to vaccination in the Health Committee and on the floor of the Assembly. At that time she spoke on the floor of how she was vaccinated for measles as a child yet got infected with the illness twice after that. She has also spoken out publicly in support of NYC workers who did not want to get the covid shot to keep their jobs. She stated that personal health decisions have to be left to individuals to decide “what is right for them and what is right for their families.”

This YES vote from Bichotte to allow children to get vaccinated behind their parents back flies in the face of these comments she made not even 2 years ago at the height of covid.

One unnerving last-minute amendment to bill A276b allows midwives to administer vaccines without parental knowledge or consent. The only STD related vaccine a midwife might administer is the HEP-B vaccine which is routinely given on day-1 of birth. This opens up the question as to whether a newborn baby can “consent” to a medical procedure. The person who determines if a child can consent based on the way this bill is written is the individual giving the vaccine, in this case the midwife or supervising doctor. While this may seem like an absurd line of questioning to consider, nothing in this bill makes clear this scenario is not allowable.

A tweet on Friday made the rounds on Twitter with pictures of all 16 Democrat lawmakers who voted to strip parents of their rights to know what is injected into their children. All Republicans and two Democrats voted against A276b.

Below are the 16 Democrats who voted to take away parental rights:

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Amy Paulin (Chair of the Health Committee)

Rodneyse Bichotte

Jeffery Dinowitz

Anna Kelles

Ed Braunstein

Phara Souffrant Forrest

Gonzalez-Rojas Aye

Andrew Hevesi

Jenifer Rajkumar

John McDonald

Linda Rosenthal

Nikki Lucas

Phil Steck

Michaelle Solages

Karines Reyes

Daniel Rosenthal