Several bills filed to weaken vaccine mandates as more Texas families opt out of immunizations [View all]

When speech pathologist Rebecca Hardy recalls her up-close seat to lawmaking during the 2015 state legislative session, she remembers how tough it was to find anyone interested in what she wanted: more choice for Texans when it came to getting vaccinated.

After forming Texans For Vaccine Choice the year before, she came to Austin to see if she could find lawmakers interested in policies to help parents who believe it’s their responsibility, not the government’s, to decide if and when a vaccination is administered to their child.

“We were on the scene far before COVID was even a word that anybody knew and 10 years ago, we did kind of have to sneak around the Capitol, have these conversations about vaccine mandates in the shadows,” the Keller resident now recalls. “And it was really hard to find people willing to put their names on protective pieces of legislation.”

https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/27/texas-legislature-vaccine-mandate-bills/