California is one of five states without a religious exemption for vaccines and now a legal group, Advocates for Faith and Freedom, has filed suit to remove The Golden State off that list.
Advocates attorney Bethany Onishenko says California began mandating vaccines for public school in the 1970s.
"Over the years they've added more vaccinations to the list,” he tells AFN, “and it's become quite the series of vaccinations in order to attend public or private school in the state of California."
A K-12 student must get five vaccines, a total of 16 shots, to legally attend a public school or private school.
The religious exemptions stopped in 2015 with the passage of SB 277.
Advocates and Onishenko are representing four parents who are naming Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, as a defendant in their complaint.
