The Arizona House of Representatives has approved a bill that would ban vaccination requirements and other medical mandates.
The Feb. 26 vote on Arizona House Bill 2248 was 31–22, and seven members did not vote. The bill has been transmitted to the Arizona Senate.
Dubbed the Arizona Medical Freedom Act, the bill would prohibit businesses, schools, and other entities from requiring medical interventions. It defines an intervention as “a medical procedure, treatment, device, drug, injection, medication or medical action taken to diagnose, prevent or cure a disease or alter the health or biological function of a person.”
On the House floor ahead of the vote, state Rep. Lisa Fink, a Republican who sponsored the legislation, referenced the Declaration of Independence.
“Medical decisions are deeply personal decisions that go directly to life and liberty,” Fink said. “This bill ensures that Arizonans are not forced to choose between their bodily autonomy and their ability to work, learn, travel, or participate in public life.”
State Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, a Democrat who voted against the bill, said she was concerned because she read the bill to mean that schools would be barred from sending children home and requiring them to receive treatment if they contract lice, because that would fall under the medical intervention definition.
Fink said the bill is not about lice.
The Health Freedom Defense Fund, whose president, Leslie Manookian, established the coalition, wrote in a Feb. 26 post on X: “This bill outlaws almost ALL medical mandates by a government entity, business, or school. Including vaccines. Health freedom is sweeping America.”
Arizona currently mandates six vaccines for students, including two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella shot.
Similar legislation is being considered by lawmakers in multiple other states, including Georgia, Hawaii, and Indiana.
The medical freedom bills are modeled after legislation approved by the Idaho Legislature and signed by Idaho’s governor in 2025.
Because that bill has not resulted in the removal of school vaccine mandates, state Rep. Rob Beiswenger has introduced a new bill called the Idaho Medical Freedom Expansion Act, which “will make it abundantly clear to students and parents that vaccination is a voluntary, personal and private choice and not mandatory,” he told The Epoch Times in an email.
