Cheryl Kagan’s Science (less) Based Assault on Parental Rights

Cheryl Kagan wants to eliminate the rights of parents in the vaccination of their children. That position is anti-science.

Senator Cheryl Kagan has introduced a bill, SB 378, that would eliminate the rights of parents in the vaccination of their children.

The text of the bill unambiguously states “a minor at least 14 years old has the same capacity as an adult  to consent to vaccination.”  The bill also allows for minors under the age of 14, and developmentally disabled and unemancipated minors to be vaccinated without parental consent if, in the opinion of a healthcare provider, the minor is of “sufficient intelligence to understand and appreciate the need, nature of, and the significant risks and consequences of the vaccination, and the minor is able to give informed consent.”

Furthermore, and even more troubling, is that Kagan does not want parents to have the ability to know if their child has been vaccinated without their consent.  The bill prohibits the release of the minor’s records to their parent or guardian without the minor’s consent.

This is an egregious assault on parental rights and an abominable insertion of the state into the private health decisions of families.  

Set aside Kagan’s assault on one of the basic institutions of civil society, the premise of her bill goes against what we know to be the current state of the science on adolescent brain development.

Don’t take my word for it.  Governor Wes Moore succinctly summed up the state of the science on this subject on WBAL Radio earlier this week.  

Responding to a question about the position of his nominee to head the Department of Juvenile Services, Vincent Schiraldi, on young adult offenders in the criminal justice system, Moore said:

“What he’s talking about is brain science. The basic development of the brain, if you look at the prefrontal cortex, you know, the part of the brain that actually focuses on judgment. The prefrontal cortex, brain science shows, does not have a measure of full development until a person hits around 25 years old, so what he’s saying is simply science.”

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Kagan, who routinely wraps her performative social media sanctimony in the cloak of “science”, wholly ignores the actual science of adolescent brain development with this dog’s breakfast of a bill.   

If a youth’s brain development, especially in the area of judgment does not occur until age 25, how can a 14-year-old, let alone a child under 14 have the “same capacity as an adult” for informed consent and the judgment of risks and complications?  

It’s a question Senator Science would rather you not ask.