By Lexx Thornton
Independent Women applauds today’s announcement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) affirming that parents—not bureaucracies, schools, or medical professionals—hold the primary authority over their children’s medical care.
This announcement comes after a troubling complaint that a Midwestern school district illegally vaccinated a minor student without parental consent. HHS plans to put a critical safeguard back in place so actions like this, that violate parents’ rights and erode trust in public health, don’t happen.
Independent Women is proud to stand by HHS while they protect not only parental rights but children as well.
Through the Office of Civil Rights, HHS is launching an investigation into this situation, and will look into whether the vaccine provider violated the Vaccines for Children (VFC) requirement to comply with state laws governing religious and other vaccine exemptions. The Office of Civil Rights also issued a strong reminder to healthcare providers nationwide: under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), parents must be included in all medical decisions and procedures involving their minor children—including vaccinations.
Dr. Monique Yohanan, senior fellow at Independent Women and author of “Rethinking Vaccine Policy: A Case for Humility, Precision, and Parental Partnership,” praised the move, saying, “HHS is drawing a clear and necessary line: no federal program should be used to sidestep parents or their rights. Vaccination, treatment, and access to records all start with parental consent. This kind of enforcement is overdue and restores basic accountability in pediatric care.”
Independent Women has long been a proponent of parental rights in pediatric medicine, from treating gender dysphoria to the vaccination process.
Earlier this year, Independent Women released Dr. Yohanan’s landmark paper, “Rethinking Vaccine Policy: A Case for Humility, Precision, and Parental Partnership,“ which addresses the information gaps surrounding the current vaccine schedule and calls for policy recalibration—making the case for humility, precision, parental partnership, and the elimination of the outdated system that dominates today’s public health landscape.
To bring these ideas to life, Independent Women’s Features (IW Features), the grassroots storytelling and original journalism arm of Independent Women, has rolled out a two-part docu-series, “A Dose of Humility: The Promise and Purpose of Vaccines,” featuring Dr. Yohanan. The series breaks down the distinct roles vaccines play in society, organizing them into three categories.
- Category 1: True Herd Immunity
- Category 2: Community Transmission
- Category 3: Individual Protection Only
The docu-series and paper together chart a path toward a more transparent, trusted, and common-sense vaccine approach.
Dr. Yohanan has also written expert opinion pieces on vaccines for several national outlets:
- Washington Examiner: The science wasn’t settled. The CDC finally admitted it
- Town hall: When Science Becomes Politics: Why Doctors Oppose Kennedy by Default
- The Center Square: FDA’s COVID-19 vaccine decision about evidence, not restriction
- Daily Caller: Why FDA Was Right To Say No To COVID-19 Vaccines For Healthy Kids
- The Hill: Measles math: Why vaccine mandates aren’t the answer
- The Epoch Times: mRNA Vaccines Aren’t the Only Answer—And That’s a Good Thing
