Florida AG Threatens Funding Cuts for Catholic Schools Over Vaccine Exemptions

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sent a letter to the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops on July 31, urging Catholic schools to grant religious exemptions for vaccinations as required by state law. He warned that schools that refuse such exemptions could lose eligibility for state‑funded educational scholarship programs and face a withdrawal of public funding. Uthmeier cited a position by the National Catholic Bioethics Center that the Catholic Church does not teach that vaccines produced with fetal cell lines are intrinsically evil, and he set an August 7 deadline for a response.

The Archdiocese of Miami noted that more than 95 % of its students receive state scholarships, averaging about $6,500 per student. Florida law mandates that both public and private schools allow religious vaccine exemptions, while medical exemptions are already permitted with a doctor’s note. The attorney general, who is himself Catholic, emphasized that non‑compliance would jeopardize the schools’ participation in state scholarship programs.