The state argued children needed immunizations to facilitate their foster care placement, education and health care. (Scott Housley/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
A juvenile court must reevaluate the sincerity of parents’ objections to their children’s vaccinations, the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
At issue is whether children in temporary state custody can be immunized with routine childhood vaccines over their parents’ religious objections — and how to decide if those objections are sincere or not.
The three young children in this case (now ages 2, 4, and 6) were removed from their parents’ care last year due to the father’s alleged violence. The removal was temporary, with a plan in place to reunify the family after the parents met certain conditions.
When the parents learned of the state foster care agency’s plans to have the children immunized, they asked a Forsyth County Juvenile Court judge to stop the state from going forward, citing religious and philosophical objections to immunization.
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