‘Medical freedom’ on Special Session Agenda

Senate President Ben Albritton has confirmed that a “medical freedom” bill that the Senate passed before it failed in the House will be on next week’s agenda for the Special Session as SB 6D.

“SB 6D is identical to the bill the Senate passed on March 9. I am referring SB 6D to the Committee on Rules for consideration on Tuesday,” Albritton wrote.

The bill, sponsored by Jacksonville Sen. Clay Yarborough, will be on the fast track.

“We heard extensive public testimony on this legislation in multiple committees during the regular session. As such, I have asked Rules Chair (Kathleen) Passidomo to move the bill through the committee process as expeditiously as possible to allow the majority of committee time for consideration of SB 8D.”

If passed, the bill would require informed consent from parents about vaccines before administering, immunizing doctors from penalties and liability if they give out ivermectin and allowing pharmacists to do the same upon request. The proposal also allows the “conscience-based objection” to childhood inoculations.

“The bill also makes permanent Florida’s existing ban on discrimination based on a person’s mRNA vaccination status and protects Floridians from forced vaccinations during emergencies,” Albritton wrote earlier this week.

For his part, Yarborough is “thankful this important legislation will be considered during the Special Session.”

“We must continue to defend parents’ rights to make decisions they believe are best for their children and that those rights prevail over State mandates,” the Jacksonville Republican told Florida Politics.

The legislation is a priority of Gov. Ron DeSantis, with whom Yarborough has aligned over the years.

“The Florida House passed something similar, in some respects, even more ambitious the previous year. They didn’t get around to doing it this time. Well, now they have an opportunity to do it,” DeSantis said last week in Jacksonville, where he signed a ban on local DEI that Yarborough sponsored.

DeSantis singled out House members on hand who he said would “want to be able to tell the voters we delivered on this.”

“I think it’s really important. I think people are going to be watching. You know, do you give a damn about your constituents or not?” DeSantis said.

“And none of this Kabuki theater where one house passes it one year, the others do it now. ‘Oh, we don’t have time.’ No, you have time. You have an ability to do it, and so we have an opportunity to get that done.”

While legislators indeed can “get it done,” questions remain about whether people want these vaccine changes.

A statewide poll from President Donald Trump’s “favorite pollster,” McLaughlin & Associates, underscores the political sensitivity surrounding vaccine policy.

The data show broad and consistent support for maintaining current vaccine safeguards. Nearly 8 in 10 Florida voters say they support keeping existing school immunization requirements in place, with strong backing across party lines, regions, and demographic groups.

This support could have real political effects. About two-thirds of Florida voters say they would be less likely to back a lawmaker who votes to weaken or remove vaccine requirements. This shows the issue could affect elections as lawmakers enter the Special Session and look ahead to the 2026 Midterms.

Republican voters, including Trump supporters, are also part of this group. The survey found that 70% of Trump voters want to keep the vaccine policies that have been in place in Florida schools for decades.

Pollster Jim McLaughlin, a longtime Republican strategist, said these results show that the politics around vaccine policy have not changed much since the last Legislative Session.

“It was smart for the Speaker to avoid a politically unpopular vaccine vote during the regular Legislative Session, and unfortunately, the political winds have not shifted since then,” McLaughlin said.

“Heading into the Special Session and Midterm campaign season, legislators would be wise to keep in mind that two-thirds of Florida voters say they’d be less likely to support a legislator who votes to roll back our state’s long-standing school vaccine policies for diseases like polio and measles. Seventy percent of Trump voters support the policies that have kept generations of Florida children safe and healthy. Why mess with that now?”

This isn’t the only warning from those with their fingers on the pulse of the Right.

A December memo from Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio warned that “skepticism toward vaccine requirements is politically risky.” The memo also said that other parts of the Make America Healthy Again agenda, such as food and agriculture, are “broadly popular.”

A number of Republicans had qualms about this bill.

Republican Sen. Gayle Harrell maintained her opposition to this “dangerous bill” throughout the process.

Republican Sen. Tom Wright was also a “no” on the bill, saying “we may be missing the boat and some of the children may not get the vaccines they need.”