Rep. Gary Drinkwater talks with fellow Republican Rep. Barbara Bagshaw before the start of a hearing in Augusta Monday on two bills about reducing vaccine requirements in Maine schools. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

AUGUSTA — In a Monday hearing on two bills to roll back school vaccine requirements in Maine, public health officials and medical professionals urged lawmakers to keep the state’s vaccination laws, while parents who have chosen not to vaccinate their children argued the requirements prevent their families from accessing education.

The first bill, LD 174, is sponsored by Rep. Gary Drinkwater, R-Milford, and would restore religious vaccine exemptions. The second, LD 727, is sponsored by Rep. Tracy Quint, R-Hodgdon, and would repeal vaccine requirements for a child to attend school in Maine.

The Education and Cultural Affairs Committee combined the bills into a single hearing Monday, drawing a smaller crowd than similar bills in years past.

Maine eliminated philosophical and religious exemptions for school vaccinations in 2021 following a voter referendum on the law that received 73% support. That change shifted Maine from the state with one of the lowest childhood vaccination rates to one of the highest in just two years.

In 2024, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the state had reached “herd immunity,” meaning at least 95% of the population had been immunized.

Before those exemptions were banned, Maine had one of the highest kindergarten vaccine opt-out rates in the country. During the 2017-18 school year, 5% of Maine kindergarteners did not have childhood vaccines for religious reasons, compared to a 1.8% national average.

But the sponsors of the two bills heard Monday argued that Maine’s rapidly improved vaccination rate is misleading because the law change prompted many families to opt out of traditional school and children began being homeschooled instead of getting immunized. And, they said, barring religious exemptions infringes on religious freedom and prevents certain students from receiving a public education.

During the hearing, public health experts and many parents defended the state’s vaccination progress and pointed to growing concerns about outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases elsewhere in the country. But many parents argued that a ban on religious exemptions has unfairly kept their children out of school and extracurricular activities like sports.

Rep. Kelly Noonan Murphy, D-Scarborough, center, sits with her colleagues on the education committee as they hear testimony during a hearing in Augusta on Monday on two bills that would reduce vaccine requirements in Maine schools. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

Ana Frazier of Solon said she homeschools her son because he is not vaccinated and argued that, as a taxpayer, she should still be able to send her child to public school.

“It feels like coercion, and it’s heartbreaking to see my child and many others face this segregation and isolation from their peers. Every child deserves the right to participate in school activities regardless of their vaccination status,” she said. 

Dawn Murray, a parent of five daughters, said her decision not to vaccinate her children has kept them from public education, sports, music and field trips.

“We live in a society that demands that we accept beliefs and practices that we do not share,” Murray testified. “Yet what we are experiencing now with the current vaccination law is not true freedom nor universal acceptance.”

Dr. Puthiery Va, the director of the Maine CDC, said the bills would threaten the health of students and put Maine at risk of an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease. Va pointed to Texas, where a second child recently died from measles, and which she said has one of the most lenient school immunization policies.

Dr. Puthiery Va, the director of the Maine CDC, speaks against the two bills that seek to reduce vaccine requirements in Maine schools. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

Other medical professionals, like pediatrician Dr. Joe Anderson from the Maine chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the Texas outbreak should be a warning to Maine.

“We don’t have to imagine what happens when these protections are weakened. We’re seeing it happen in real time. Texas is currently battling a massive measles outbreak with nearly 500 reported cases,” Anderson said, adding that Maine is one of only four states that has increased its measles vaccination rate since the pandemic, which he said can make a big difference if the highly contagious disease reaches the state.

The committee also heard from longtime school nurses like Rebecca Bell, from Casco Bay High School in Portland.

“Removing vaccine requirements is dangerous to children, educators, health care workers and families of those unvaccinated, especially the elderly and those who are immunocompromised,” Bell testified.

In their questions to speakers, some lawmakers implied that immigrants and refugees in Maine are not being held to the same vaccination standards, and also suggested that border crossings in Texas are responsible for the measles outbreak, something that public health officials there have said there is no evidence for.

Doctors and school nurses who testified pushed back on that position, saying immigrants and refugees are bound by the same vaccine requirements as all Mainers; anybody newly enrolling in a Maine school who doesn’t have the required vaccines, including both immigrants and students who move from a different state, has a 90-day grace period to get up-to-date on immunizations.

Note: This story was updated on April 8 to correct Rep. Barbara Bagshaw’s title in a photo caption.