TALLAHASSEE — Florida may keep some required vaccine mandates after all.

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo made national news in September when he announced a plan to remove all vaccine mandates from state law.

But so far, no lawmaker has any bill that would do away with the mandated vaccines, which include required shots for polio, measles, mumps and more.

Instead, the bill moving forward this legislative session would keep the state’s statutory vaccine requirements but make it easier for parents to opt out.

(The Department of Health is moving forward with a plan to remove four state vaccine requirements, which it can do without needing legislative approval.)

A proposal that moved through its first Senate committee on Monday, sponsored by Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville, would let parents decline a vaccine based on their conscience.

Current law only allows parents to cite a religious reason for exemption.

Yarborough said “parents need to be in the drivers’ seat for every aspect of their children’s education, their health care, their wellbeing, anything related thereto.”

He said he didn’t believe that adding a conscience exemption would bring a major change to the vaccination rate. As of 2025, about 89% of Florida kindergarteners were immunized, down from about 94% in 2019.

Yarborough said while he agrees with much of what Ladapo said last year about removing mandates, he tried to take other senators’ feelings into account.

The bill on Monday faced public pushback from families and doctors who said it would jeopardize vulnerable children and public health. It also faced pushback from Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, who voted against the bill.

“We are about to go down a road that’s going to create a major problem for children, but also for seniors and those who cannot be vaccinated,” Harrell said.

Along with the changes to vaccine exemptions, Yarborough’s bill would require anyone providing a child with a vaccine to tell their parents the risks, benefits, safety and efficacy of the vaccine.

The material about risks, benefits and more would be approved by the state Board of Medicine and Board of Osteopathic Medicine.

Harrell put forward an amendment that would have required people seeking a vaccine exemption to have a similar consultation

Yarborough said that would present a barrier to people seeking a religious exemption, which he said was “a bridge too far.” The amendment failed.

Sen. Colleen Burton, R-Winter Haven, also expressed hesitation over the bill but still voted yes.

The Senate bill approved on Monday does not include a component of the House’s legislation — one that could compel doctors to see unvaccinated patients.

The House bill, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Holcomb, R-Spring Hill, could have doctors lose their license or face other discipline if they discriminate against a patient based on that patient’s vaccine status.

“I don’t disagree with where the House is on it, but I think we have a lot more conversations we have to have,” Yarborough said. “Senators obviously need to be on board with what we’re going to be working on.”

A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Health said the department “appreciates both the House and the Senate for addressing this important public health need through their work and proposed bills.”

Under current law, doctors can’t deny someone treatment based on their race, sex, religion or national origin. But doctors can, and do, refuse to see unvaccinated patients as a matter of office policy.

Pediatricians across the state point to vaccines as a life-saving measure. In a September interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Dr. Rana Alissa, the president of the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said that seeing unvaccinated patients can put other children in danger.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and Ladapo have both been in favor of compelling pediatricians to see unvaccinated patients.

DeSantis has said policies that reject unvaccinated children are wrong and coercive, and Ladapo last year pushed for a bill that sought to offer more protection for unvaccinated patients.

That language was ultimately stripped out of the 2025 bill.

DeSantis and Ladapo have previously supported legislation that gives doctors the broad ability to deny any patient a procedure based on the doctor’s conscience and morals.

That bill, sponsored by former Rep. Joel Rudman, a family physician, was approved with the COVID-19 pandemic in mind.

The legislation approved Monday also would also allow a pharmacist to provide ivermectin to anyone 18 or older without a prescription “until the United States Food and Drug Administration approves it for over-the-counter sale.”

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