A new coalition composed of 15 groups, including an organization founded by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is taking aim at vaccine and mask mandates across the United States.
Children’s Health Defense, the Kennedy-founded group, and other members of the Medical Freedom Act Coalition say they want every state to introduce and pass medical freedom bills.
“I think it’s the first time we’ve seen this kind of effort in the kind of freedom and health movement,” Leslie Manookian, who founded the Health Freedom Defense Fund, told The Epoch Times.
The model state is Idaho, which in 2025 enacted a law that prohibits businesses and schools from requiring customers, employees, and students to receive vaccines or other medical procedures. Manookian helped write the legislation, called the Idaho Medical Freedom Act.
“Because that passed, it really showed what was possible,” Leah Wilson, executive director and co-founder of Stand for Health Freedom and one of the leaders of the coalition, told The Epoch Times. “Our goal is to take the Medical Freedom Act to as many states as possible across the U.S.”
Michael Kane, director of advocacy for Children’s Health Defense, told The Epoch Times, “Children’s Health Defense finds vaccine mandates and medical mandates reprehensible, and we are honored to be part of a coalition fighting to end forced medical procedures, to end medical mandates and vaccine mandates for all Americans.”
The coalition also includes others linked to Kennedy or his Make America Health Again (MAHA) movement, including the Independent Medical Alliance, several of whose advisers Kennedy has appointed to a vaccine advisory committee; the MAHA Institute, whose president co-founded a political action committee that funded Kennedy’s presidential bid; and MAHA Action, which has held events attended by Kennedy and whose leader has published books written by the health secretary.
People involved in the effort have said that they are in communication with Kennedy on other matters but have not discussed the coalition. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment.
“This state, more than any state in the country, stands for not only medical freedom but a healthy population,” Kennedy said in a briefing with Idaho Gov. Brad Little, a Republican who signed the Idaho Medical Freedom Act a few months prior, on July 23, 2025.
Kennedy recently told reporters in Tennessee that he was not part of efforts to end school vaccine mandates in states.
“I believe in freedom of choice,” he said, describing vaccination as “a personal choice that people should make with their physicians.”
American Families for Vaccines; the American Academy of Pediatrics, which partners with vaccine manufacturers; and other organizations oppose rolling back vaccine mandates. The groups did not respond to requests for comment.
Idaho Requirements Still in Place
The Idaho Medical Freedom Act says in part that a school “shall not mandate a medical intervention for any person to attend, enter campus or buildings, or be employed.” It also says that a business “shall not refuse to provide any service, product, admission to a venue, or transportation to a person because that person has or has not received or used a medical intervention.”
But according to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (DHW), parents are required to have their children vaccinated against certain diseases for school and day care attendance in Idaho.
The department points to another law that outlines vaccine requirements for children.
“DHW encourages school districts to consider the Medical Freedom Act … when implementing vaccine requirements at schools,” a spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.
Supporters of the act say the Idaho legislation was imperfect. A new Medical Freedom Expansion bill introduced by state Rep. Rob Beiswenger, a Republican who co-sponsored the legislation, seeks to make clear that mandates are unacceptable.
“The Expansion bill will make it abundantly clear to students and parents that vaccination is a voluntary, personal and private choice and not mandatory,” Beiswenger told The Epoch Times in an email.
State Actions So Far
Legislators in about a dozen states this year have introduced bills that would alter or ban mandates for vaccines or other medical procedures.
Arizona legislators introduced a bill that would ban businesses and schools from requiring “a medical intervention” such as a vaccine for employment or attendance.
“This bill ensures that Arizonans are not forced to choose between their bodily autonomy and their ability to work, learn, travel, or to participate in public life,” state Rep. Lisa Fink, a Republican who sponsored the bill, said at a hearing in January.
Lawmakers in two state House committees have cleared the legislation.
Hawaii lawmakers introduced the Hawaii Medical Freedom Act, which outlines a similar ban. It has been referred to state House panels.
Indiana senators introduced a bill that would bar requiring people “to accept, undergo, or engage in a medical intervention in or on the individual’s body as a condition of employment, entrance, admission, compensation, benefits, or participation.” The bill has been referred to the state Senate Health Committee.
New Hampshire representatives outlined legislation that would repeal immunization requirements for children. A public hearing on the bill took place on Feb. 4, and a legislative session took place on Feb. 11.
On the other hand, some lawmakers have been floating bills that would tighten vaccine mandates. South Carolina state Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, for example, recently introduced a bill that would end religious exemptions for measles vaccination amid an outbreak in the state.
“This legislation is about protecting children, protecting classrooms, and protecting communities with clear, medically grounded standards,” Bright Matthews, a Democrat, said in a statement.
Every state in the country requires vaccines for school attendance. Some allow exemptions for religious or philosophical reasons, while all permit medical exemptions.
Florida officials said in 2025 that they would be removing all vaccine mandates, but the goal has met resistance in the state Legislature, where action is required to remove mandates for some shots. The Medical Freedom Act, introduced in January, would expand exemptions to the mandates but not prohibit the mandates themselves.
The Health Freedom Defense Fund, part of the new coalition, has released model legislation that perfects the Idaho Medical Freedom Act, Manookian said. Lawmakers in other states can use the model legislation to introduce medical freedom bills in their states.
“I don’t think this is a partisan issue,” she said. “I think that Americans in general don’t want to be forced to do something to their children.”