HB 559 Advocacy

Dear Members of Parents Advocating for Vaccines,

WE NEED YOUR HELP!  The Ohio AAP Advocacy team has been working overdrive on immunization legislation at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. We had a number of pediatricians, advocates and parent partners in full force at the Statehouse on Wednesday, May 16 to testify as proponents for HB 559, which, if enacted, will strengthen Ohio’s immunization laws to strike a better balance between parental rights and the overall health and well-being of Ohio’s children. This bill is a standardizing of the opt-out process around school mandates for vaccines, and a strengthening of reporting. By establishing a standardized form and requiring a conversation with a healthcare provider before a family can opt out of vaccines, we are requiring essential components to the current process to ensure that parents have all the appropriate medical and scientific information prior to making health care decisions such as immunizing their child.

We need to make it clear to members of the Ohio House Health committee that the view point of members of Parents Advocating for Immunizations  is the common opinion of most parents in Ohio, which is that by supporting HB 559 they are in good company: 82% of people believe in the benefits of vaccines and 88% believe the benefits of immunization outweigh the narrow risk of complications, according to a recent Pew survey.

Please take a moment to contact EACH member of the Health Committee listed below by using this letter as a template for your outreach.  It should take less than 10 minutes to personalize the letter, and send an email to all 19 Representatives.  Please remember if you customize the attached letter to remain courteous of both sides of this issue as we know it is important to simply advocate for our scientifically fact based viewpoint, not counteract the other side.