If you think we live in a genuine "red" state, think again.
State Rep. Ernie Yarbrough (R-Trinity) sponsored the "Right to Refuse Act" in the 2026 legislative session. This bill would have protected medical freedom by lawfully enabling Alabama citizens the right to refuse vaccines that might cause them harm. It would have also provided protection against medical treatments and face coverings without coercion or prejudice.
The bill did not make it out of committee.
The right to refuse vaccinations wouldn't be an issue if Alabama's medical community would realize what Alabama mothers have known for years. Moms understand that no child is the same. One child can eat peanut butter, while another has an anaphylactic reaction to nuts. One child's body may have the ability to rid itself of toxins, while another may have the MTHFR (methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase) gene mutation that hinders how the body processes folate to release those toxins.
Most medical professionals across Alabama – barring Dr. Jordan Vaughn and a few others – treat every child the same. And they look at us moms like we're crazy if we mention an "outside the box" treatment that doesn't fall within their educational parameters. They have intellectually fallen behind in this post-COVID world.
As my youngest child begins considering what he wants to be when he grows up, we are helping him research careers. Given his recent running injuries, he is increasingly interested in orthopedics, leading him to research physician's assistant programs at his favorite schools. The need for good physician's assistants is increasing, and it doesn't look like that will change any time soon. The same is true for nurses.
The need for nurses is projected to grow by approximately 5% between 2024 and 2034, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says, faster than the average for other occupations. An aging population, increasing healthcare demands, and older nurses retiring guarantee that there will continue to be a shortage in this area.
You might assume that Alabama will do everything possible to make it easy for capable, intelligent, caring young women and men to become registered nurses and, hopefully, stay in the state to work. But that assumption is wrong.
On average, nursing students begin clinicals in their junior year of a four-year program. These clinicals are an important part of hands-on training for nurses. Obviously, some of this is done in a hospital setting.
To start clinicals, nursing students must meet several criteria, including full vaccination. Some nursing students have medical exemptions from vaccines, which doesn't mean they haven't been vaccinated, just that they had an adverse reaction to a shot and have been instructed by a physician to forego further vaccinations. Herein lies the problem – Alabama hospitals are requiring student nurses to take the very shots the medical community has told them to stop getting.
East Alabama Medical Center had reasonable policies regarding vaccinations for nursing students. Yet as the mother of a distraught nursing student told me, the requirements recently changed. Medical exemptions from physicians for the Measles, Mumps, Rubella and Varicella vaccines are no longer accepted. Instead, these vaccines are required.
Rest assured, there are registered nurses across Alabama who have been working in hospitals for decades without receiving boosters. So, why are we punishing the youngest, healthiest, strongest among us who are striving to become nurses by denying them clinical work over shots that will increase their health problems?
Medical tyranny isn't an issue we typically experience in the "red" states. But denying perfectly capable young adults from completing clinicals because additional shots will endanger THEIR health is medical tyranny and the definition of insanity.
We have some excellent hospitals across Alabama. Grandview Hospital treated my father for a stroke in 2023. My children were both born at Brookwood Hospital. Huntsville Hospital treated our son on Christmas Day 2005 when he was sick with the flu. It appears that all these hospitals will hire nurses without questioning their vaccination status, but nursing students cannot complete their clinicals at ANY of them unless they comply with their vaccination mandates.
Alabama does not have a state surgeon general calling for an end to vaccine mandates like Florida does. Instead, we have Dr. Scott Harris, who oversees the Alabama Department of Public Health and locked us down during COVID. So, I'm guessing he would rather take 10 boosters than err on the side of medical freedom.
These rigid policies are going to hurt Alabama. Our best and brightest nursing students may start choosing colleges in states like Georgia, where universities and hospitals have developed more reasonable policies to encourage future nurses to stay and work in-state.
The bottom line is that the days of people sacrificing their own health and bowing the knee to medical mandates are over.
Kristin Landers is a substitute teacher and freelance writer. Landers' previous work includes serving as Communications Director for the Alabama Policy Institute and working for Citizens Against a Legalized Lottery (CALL) to defeat legalized gambling in Alabama.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
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