Gov. Little touts 'medical freedom' in Idaho, vetoes bill to ban vaccine mandates

Carolyn Komatsoulis, The Idaho Statesman on Mar 29, 2025

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Idaho schools for now will be able to continue actions to prevent spreading diseases, after Gov. Brad Little on Saturday vetoed a bill that would prohibit mandates on medical interventions.

Little vetoed Senate Bill 1023, which would have expanded on the state’s previous law prohibiting businesses from requiring COVID-19 vaccines. The bill would ban businesses, as well as schools and preschools, from requiring any medical intervention, including all types of injections. The bill would also bar mandates from any treatment “or action taken to diagnose, prevent or cure a disease.”

Little in his transmittal letter wrote that while “medical freedom is an Idaho value,” the bill would prohibit schools from sending students with contagious conditions home. In the letter, Little included a list of other bills he signed into law, including those this month that banned mask mandates and allowed health care professionals to refuse treatments that violated their personal beliefs.

“Calling Senate Bill 1023 ‘medical freedom’ is a total misnomer. Idaho already boasts the most medical freedom of any state in the union, and this bill works against parental choice,” Little said, in an emailed statement. “Parents deserve to send their children to school or day care knowing they will be safe from contagious illnesses that disrupt families’ lives.”

This was Little’s first veto of the legislative session, and the Idaho Legislature could choose to vote on the bill again to try to override the veto. But the Senate in February approved the bill in a 19-14 vote, less than the two-thirds support it would need for the bill to become law by overriding Little.

Senate Republican leaders didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Health Freedom Defense Fund Founder Leslie Manookian, who one lawmaker had described as the “real architect” of the bill, told legislators at a committee meeting that the bill was “protecting our God-given rights to decide what’s best for ourselves.”

But some lawmakers had doubts.

Rep. Lori McCann, R-Lewiston, previously said the changes would be too far-reaching by going from COVID-19 vaccines to every medical intervention.

“This is a bridge too far that I cannot get over,” McCann said. “It is too broad.”

House lawmakers passed the bill with more than two-thirds support.

House Speaker Mike Moyle said that hopefully the Legislature could either send Little another bill addressing his concerns or just override the veto.

“I don’t know if the Senate has the votes to override that bill, I haven’t heard yet,” Moyle told the Statesman. “Maybe there’s an easy way to fix (the bill.)"

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