By Renee McGuinness, Vermont Family Alliance Policy Analyst

Buried within S.151, an otherwise beneficial bill, is language that would allow minors age 12+ to consent to Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) preventative services – presumably including the controversial vaccination Gardisil – without parent or legal guardian notification and consent.

S.151, Section 7, page 16, beginning at line 14, “§1107 Consent to preventative services by minors” would create a new statute to be added under: Title 18 Health, Chapter 21 Communicable Diseases, Subchapter 3 Venereal Diseases which would allow minors aged 12+ to consent to STI preventative services – which essentially means Gardasil and Hepatitis B vaccines – without parental or legal guardian knowledge and consent. 

S.151, Section 7,  also includes “§1108 Consent to treatment services by minors” – meaning minors 12+ can consent to treatments to resolve STI infections. However, minors 12+ are already legally allowed to consent to STI treatment services, located under 18 V.S.A. § 4226 (a)(1)  “possession and control of regulated drugs,” because minors 12+ can also consent to drug and alcohol treatment without parental knowledge and consent.

Section 7 was described as a “lightning rod” and a “distraction” from other sections of the bill during the Senate Judiciary Committee overview on January 31 (beginning @7:00 and ending @20:00), and there was discussion whether to keep or remove it. 

It remains in place for now.

Senator Virginia Lyons (D-Chittenden) is not only the sole sponsor of S.151, but she is also the Chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare. Like all committee chairs, she is the driving force in determining which bills are taken up in the Committee, and who is allowed to testify.

Senator Lyons described Section 7 as allowing minors to receive STI prevention information four times during Committee discussion. To be clear: Section 7 is about allowing minors 12+ to consent to preventative STI services without parental knowledge and consent: Section 7 is NOT about providing minors 12+ with information. Lyons also claimed that most pediatric visits include the parents, except sometimes in cases of abuse or other situations.

In addition, when Vice Chair David Weeks (R-Rutland) mentioned repealing 18 V.S.A. § 4226 minors aged 12+ consent to STI treatments because he thinks that’s too young and legislators are “cherry picking ages all over the place,” Senator Lyons stated (@18:45) that the intent [of Section 7] was just to change the language from “venereal disease” to “sexually transmitted infections,” which was met with some giggling from Senator Martine Larocque Gulik, a retired teacher and Burlington school board member.

Addison County Senator Ruth Hardy, a strong proponent of allowing minors to consent to certain medical treatments, appeared to be absent from the meeting.

Senator Lyons also spearheaded S.18, which intends to ban the sale of e- cigarettes, flavored tobacco, and related contraband, and bans the sale of other forms of tobacco to persons under the age of 21.

Here are Vermont Family Alliance’s issues with adding a statute to allow minors 12+ to consent to STI (sexually transmitted infections) preventative services as well as preserving law allowing minors 12+ to consent to treatments for STIs when the minor is infected:

Section  7 makes legislators aid and abet the sexual exploitation of minors by codifying legislation that serves to facilitate and cover up the sexual abuse of minors aged 12+ by allowing them to consent to STD Prevention and Treatment services without parental knowledge and consent. Stop It Now statistics state the average age for a minor to enter the sex trade is 12 – 14.

Section 7 also usurps both parents’ and legal guardians’ rights to direct their children’s healthcare. Currently, parents are suing the Rockford, Michigan School district for socially transitioning their child without parental knowledge and consent, a violation of both the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution; the supreme law of the land.

Vermont S.151 Section 7 presents the same usurpations.

 Legislators that vote “yea” on S.151 with Section 7 included would be violating their oaths of office under Chapter II, § 16 and §17 of the Constitution of the State of Vermont by enacting legislation that lessens and abridges citizens’ rights to direct their children’s health care in the manner they determine to be appropriate under Chapter 1: Article 1 certain natural, inherent, and unalienable rights; Article 3 Freedom in religion; Article 6 Officers are servants of the people; Article 18 Regard to fundamental principles and virtues necessary to preserve liberty.

State legislators’ disregard for the U.S. and State Constitutions can result in lawsuits that burden the taxpayers of Vermont with legal costs associated with the State’s defense of unconstitutional legislation. To enact legislation that is known to violate both the U.S. and State Constitutions is irresponsible and reckless governance, and dereliction of duty.

 In a constitutional republic, there is a limited majority rule. This means that even if the entire legislative body were to agree, and even if the majority of the People agree, S151 Section 7 would infringe on the rights of the People to parent their children in the manner they determine to be appropriate, free from State interference, even if that minority is one.

Preventative services for STIs include HPV and hepatitis B vaccines, both of which have known risks. Merck & Co. is charged with, “obtaining FDA approval for Gardasil in 2006 based on deceptive research and clinical trials that misrepresented the vaccine’s efficacy while concealing its safety risks and side effects” in a Class Action Lawsuit. 151 

Section 7 would allow minors aged 12+ to consent to these vaccines without the guidance and consent of parents and without the capacity to fully understand the risks. The minors themselves, and their parents or guardians are the ones that bear the burden and expense if their adolescent experiences complications from treatment or is injured by a vaccine.

Other questions this bill raises:

·         Who would be the person transporting a minor aged 12+ to acquire preventative care and treatment services?

·         Can a minor 12+ receive STI prevention and treatments at school?

·         Who is providing these vaccines and treatments to minors 12+?

·         Who is covering the costs associated with STI preventative care and treatments, complications from treatments, and vaccine reactions and injuries performed without parental knowledge and consent?

·         Who is responsible for the minor aged 12+ if complications and reactions from preventative and treatment services performed without parental knowledge and consent become severe?

·         What if the minor is afraid to tell their parents they are experiencing a reaction to a treatment or vaccine that they received without their parents’ knowledge or consent, and end up experiencing more severe complications and injuries as a result of a lack of prompt medical attention?

One has to wonder who is benefiting from S.151, Section 7. Certainly, parents’ rights are being usurped, and the sexual abuse of minors aged 12+ would be facilitated and concealed under Section 7.

Vermont Family Alliance will be strongly advising the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare to strike Section 7 from S.151; repeal 18 V.S.A. § 4226 and take up parental rights legislation to reassert parents’ rights to direct their children’s upbringing free from State interference.

Further, legislators that work for The People must be transparent. Any legislation on the oversight of minors must be presented as its own bill, not hidden within another bill.

According to this week’s agenda, the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare, whose members include Senators Virginia Lyons, David Weeks (friendly), Ruth Hardy, Martine Laroque Gulik, and Terry Williams (friendly), S.171 was scheduled for an overview and possible mark-up on Wednesday. 

Mark-up is traditionally conducted after receiving witness testimony and prior to voting the bill out of Committee to the Senate Floor, and then assigned to a Committee in the House chamber, but to date, no testimony has been taken.

Senator Lyons stated at the end of Section 7 review that the committee will now plan to receive testimony. The schedule has not yet been set. People can check the weekly agenda for the following week on late Friday afternoon on the Senate Committee Health and Welfare page.

Interested Vermonters may use the information above to draft their own testimony, put it in PDF format, and send to Senate Committee on Health and Welfare Assistant Kiki Carasi-Schwartz at kcarasi-schwartz@leg.state.vt.us. It is helpful to request that your testimony be listed under witness documents, including bill number S.151, your name, and date.