Religious Exemptions

Last year on January 23, 2025, Hawaiʻi State Senate President Ron Kouchi introduced Senate Bill 1437, and State Rep. Nadine Nakamura, Speaker of the House, introduced its companion bill, HB 1118. These bills would remove the religious exemption to school immunization requirements currently available under Hawaiʻi law, in an effort to increase vaccine uptake. Current Hawaiʻi law allows religious and medical exemptions for all schools both public and private, from pre-school through college, but does not allow students to opt out based on conscientious or philosophical beliefs alone.

Fortunately the effort to repeal religious exemptions last year failed. Due to an enormous public outcry, action and advocacy support from many national organizations (CHD, SFHF, MAHA, and ICAN) the bill was killed. Hawaii For Informed Consent, a grassroots group that followed the bill from start to finish, stated “when the House Majority learned they did not have enough votes to pass the bill during a final floor vote, instead of going on record with a losing vote, they “recommitted” the bill back to the JHA committee where it would die, without a vote, due to session time-constraints.”

But with the new year comes a new session, and anything can happen.

This bill could gain momentum in 2026 and our movement has to be ready. The statehouse session opens January 21, 2026 and the only way to defeat this bill if it starts to move is by engaging our state elected officials and a coordinated effort at the Capitol.

This effort to take away religious exemptions comes at a time when the exact opposite is happening in other areas of the country. Most recently, Mississippi and West Virginia established religious exemptions after decades of being without. Hawai’i’s lawmakers want to join the few other states – New York, Connecticut, Maine and California – that do not recognize religious exemptions to immunization requirements.

An effort has just launched in Hawai’i proposing a ballot initiative on the county level calling for vaccination to always remain optional. We appreciate this effort in education and spirit, but it is important to know even if this ballot initiative is successful it will not protect the religious exemption in Hawai’i. State law is superior to county law (which includes any ballot initiative) so it is critical that we protect the religious exemption to vaccination in Hawai’i on the state level by engaging our state elected officials.

Please use the form below to join the CHD Hawai’i Chapter mailing list to ensure you receive the most critical updates on how to protect the religious exemption to vaccination in Hawai’i.