BREAKING NEWS
Thursday, November 18, 2021
GOVERNOR RON DESANTIS SIGNS LEGISLATION TODAY PROTECTING FLORIDIANS FROM VACCINE MANDATES
Legislation follows rally of 700 supporting mandate
exceptions at Capitol organized by Florida Family Policy Council
(Tallahassee, FL) Today, Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation that will protect Floridians from losing their jobs due to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and protect parents’ rights to make healthcare decisions for students. The bills were passed through a Special Session of the Florida Legislature and are effective upon the Governor’s signature. The legislation signed today is the strongest pro-freedom, anti-mandate action taken by any state in the nation.
In Florida, effective immediately:
- Private Employer COVID-19 vaccine mandates are prohibited.
- Employers who violate these employee health protections will be fined.
- Government entities may not require COVID-19 vaccinations of anyone, including employees.
- Educational institutions may not require students to be COVID-19 vaccinated.
- School districts may not have school face mask policies.
- School districts may not quarantine healthy students.
- Students and parents may sue violating school districts and recover costs and attorney’s fees.
DeSantis’s signing of the bills came following a coalition of 700 supporters rallying at the Capitol to oppose vaccine mandates. Florida Family Policy Council and 24 sponsors organized the rally. Twenty speakers addressed the crowds including physicians, fire fighters, employees, and mothers. Speaker highlights included Alfie Oaks of Seed to Table, family physician Dr. John Littel, fire chief Stephen Davis, and Patti Sullivan with Parental Rights Florida. In closing, President and General Counsel of FFPC, John Stemberger, invited approximately fifty employees who had lost their jobs after facing vaccine mandates to the front to pray for them.
In an emotional moment after so many had expressed their desire for these bills to pass, John Stemberger made the following statement:
“The right to refuse medical treatment is a fundamental right under our state constitution and we applaud Gov. DeSantis and the Florida legislature for these first-in the nation laws which protect citizens who do not wish to be injected with the vaccination. We’re not anti-vaccine, we are anti-vaccine mandate.”
Read about the new bills here:
For more information, contact Melissa Woodford, FFPC Communications Director, at [email protected] or call 407-251-5130.
