Presidential Candidate Carly Fiorina said during a town hall in rural Iowa Thursday that she believes that parents should never be forced to vaccinate their children for communicable diseases like measles or mumps. Though, she does say that school districts are “well within their rights” to deny the attendance of those unvaccinated children in their schools.
"When you have highly communicable diseases where we have a vaccine that's proven, like measles or mumps, then I think a parent can make that choice -- but then I think a school district is well within their rights to say: 'I'm sorry, your child cannot then attend public school.' So a parent has to make that trade-off.”
"When in doubt, it is always the parent's choice," Fiorina said. "When in doubt, it must always be the parents' choice.”
Her views on the issue came into question when a mother of five stated that she would not vaccinate her children due to her religious beliefs. She refuses to allow her children to receive any vaccination that was created using cells from aborted babies. Fiorina told her that she should always be able to practice her beliefs.
"We must protect religious liberty and someone's ability to practice their religion," said Fiorina to applause. "We must devote energy and resources to doing so. Period.”
She would also clarify that when it comes to diseases that are not contagious or communicable, school districts should not be allowed to mandate that children should receive any vaccination for them.
“A school district shouldn’t be able to say, ‘Sorry, your kid can’t come to school’ for a disease that’s not communicable, that’s not contagious, and where there isn’t really any proof that it’s necessary at this point,” said Fiorina.