(LifeSiteNews) — The West Virginia education department is facing a lawsuit after trying to force a four-year-old to take abortion-tainted shots in order to attend school. The parent suing, Miranda Guzman, has the backing of the state’s governor.
Guzman’s lawsuit, provided via News and Sentinel, names the West Virginia Board of Education, the state superintendent of schools, the Raleigh County Board of Education, and the county superintendent of schools. Guzman “maintains profound religious objections to injecting her four-year-old child, A.G., with the vaccinations required,” the lawsuit states.
While West Virginia has strict obstacles to getting an exemption, Governor Patrick Morrisey released an executive order requiring an opportunity to request a religious exception. It follows a 2023 state law called the West Virginia Equal Protection for Religion Act, which generally protects the religious liberties of West Virginia residents.
The state Department of Health granted the Guzman family an exemption, but Raleigh County schools refused to honor it. Even further, the state board of education ordered school districts to ignore Gov. Morrisey’s lawful order and thus continue to coerce parents into getting their children jabbed.
Despite being a deep red Republican state, West Virginia “is a radical outlier from the rest of the country in that its [forced vaccination law] only allows secular medical exemptions and disallows religious exemptions,” according to the lawsuit.
State leaders are backing Guzman’s legal suit.
“Governor Morrisey made it clear that his administration will respect the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and give meaning to it,” the governor’s office stated on June 24. “When the law is interpreted alongside the state’s current vaccine policy, the Governor explained that religious liberties must be upheld and called on schools to honor the religious exemptions.”
“As Governor, I will always defend the religious liberty of West Virginians, and I won’t allow unelected bureaucrats at the State Board of Education to stand in the way,” Gov. Morrisey said. “Religious liberty is already enshrined in West Virginia law – and we are going to enforce that law.”
The state’s top health official also backs the exemption.
“West Virginia leads the nation in vaccination rates, and we can lead again—this time by proving that protecting public health and respecting parental rights are not mutually exclusive,” Dr. Arvin Singh, West Virginia secretary of health, stated in the news release. “With Governor Morrisey’s leadership, we’re restoring trust, transparency, and truth in how we protect our children.”
The lawsuit is the latest battle in the state between supporters of medical freedom, who stress that parents and individuals have a right to decline jabs, and those who want to see coerce students into taking vaccines, regardless of risk.
The News and Sentinel reports:
In May, the Governor’s Office released guidance to schools and parents seeking vaccine exemptions. The state Department of Education had also released a memo to county school superintendents ordering them to follow the state vaccination law but walked that memo back due to pressure from the Governor’s Office.
An effort to codify Morrisey’s executive order failed when the West Virginia House of Delegates voted down a heavily amended Senate Bill 460. But Morrisey’s vaccine executive order remains in effect. Morrisey said his executive order instead clarifies State Code based on legislation passed in 2023 – the Equal Protection for Religion Act – that prohibits excessive government limitations on the exercise of religious faith.
The state Department of Education told the News and Sentinel it has not received the lawsuit yet, according to an article from Wednesday. Instead, it deferred to a prior statement, endorsing mandatory vaccination.
“The WVBE directed the State Superintendent of Schools to notify all school districts to follow the law that has been in effect since 1937,” the board previously stated. “This is in line with the actions of the West Virginia Legislature during the 2025 Regular Session which did not vote in favor of religious exemptions for vaccines.”
“The intent of the State Board is to do what is best for the 241,000 children, 23,000 educators, and 15,000 service personnel in our 629 public schools,” the statement continued, according to the news outlet. “This includes taking the important steps of protecting the school community from the real risk of exposure to litigation that could result from not following vaccination laws.”
Although this case centers around a clear personal liberty – the right to take or not take shots – the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia sided against medical freedom rights. Instead, the ACLU argues that parents should not have the right to decline vaccines for their kids.
“At the center of this lawsuit is who gets to make these decisions for our students,” legal director Aubrey Sparks said in May, siding against parental rights and on behalf of school authorities. “On this question, the state Constitution is clear that the authority lies with the Legislature, not the governor,” the ACLU of West Virginia argued.
