Idaho Gov. Brad Little has signed legislation that bans businesses and schools from requiring customers, employees, and students to receive vaccines or other medical procedures.
On April 4, Little signed the Idaho Medical Freedom Act, or Senate Bill 1210.
It states that a school “shall not mandate a medical intervention for any person to attend, enter campus or buildings, or be employed.” It also states that, unless required by federal law, state, county, and local governments cannot require a person to receive a medical intervention.
A medical intervention is defined in the legislation as “a medical procedure, treatment, device, drug, injection, medication, or medical action taken to diagnose, prevent, or cure a disease or alter the health or biological function of a person.”
State Rep. Todd Achilles, a Democrat, was one of the bill’s opponents. Speaking on the floor of the Idaho House of Representatives before the chamber passed the act, he said that the updated legislation, despite amendments, “remains deeply flawed,” partly because its definition of medical intervention is “overly broad.”
“Effectively, what this bill does is it ties the hands of Idaho businesses, who have the duty to protect their customers and their employees,” he said. “We’re telling them what they can and can’t do.”
Senate Bill 1210, the bill that was signed into law, expanded on the section relating to schools by giving them the ability to prevent sick children from going to class.
Leslie Manookian, president and founder of Health Freedom Defense Fund, helped lawmakers craft the legislation. She welcomed the signing of the bill.