California parents are outraged over a new proposed bill that would allow preteens to be vaccinated for Covid without parental consent.
Democrat State Senator Scott Wiener, a childless 51-year-old Democrat state lawmaker in San Francisco, believes he knows what’s best for other people’s children.
“Giving young people the autonomy to receive life-saving vaccines, regardless of their parents’ beliefs or work schedules, is essential for their physical and mental health,” Wiener said. “It’s unconscionable for teens to be blocked from the vaccine because a parent either refuses or cannot take their child to a vaccination site.”
The new proposal would allow children ages 12-17 to be vaccinated without their parents’ approval.
The Associated Press reported:
California would allow children age 12 and up to be vaccinated without their parents’ consent under a new proposal introduced late Thursday by a state senator.
Alabama allows such decisions at age 14, Oregon at 15, Rhode Island and South Carolina at 16, according to Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco who is proposing the change. Only Washington, D.C., has a lower limit, at age 11.
Wiener argued that California already allows those 12 and up to consent to the Hepatitis B and Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines, and to treatment for sexually transmitted infections, substance abuse and mental health disorders.
“I don’t think they’re old enough to make that decision for themselves,” one parent said.
Another parent said, “Parents don’t want to co-parent with the state or with politicians.”
The mother argued that parents should be a part of any medical decision that affects children: “Parents know their children’s medical history. They know their family history. They know if their children are taking any current medications — they don’t ask these questions at these [vaccine] clinics.”
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You may remember Scott Wiener for previously introducing a bill that would allow judges to decide whether to list a man as a sex offender for having oral or anal sex with a same-sex minor.
The bill, which was signed into law by Governor Newsom in September 2020, lowers the penalties for adults who have sex with ‘willing’ same-sex minors. A Judge could decide if the adult has to register as sex offender if the offender is within 10 years of age of the victim.
The bill does not apply to minors under the age of 14.
Since 1944, judges decided whether a man had to register as a sex offender if he had sex with a female minor 14 years of age or older when the age difference is not more than 10 years, so Wiener argued that since the law didn’t apply to young boys, the LBGTQ community was being ‘discriminated against.’
The law ends discrimination “by treating LGBTQ young people the exact same way that straight young people have been treated since 1944,” Wiener said in a statement, adding: “Today, California took yet another step toward an equitable society.”