Summary of Petition to Ensure Vaccine Choice in Ohio Rejected Over Material Omission, Misstatements 

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Attorney General’s Office rejected a fourth summary of a petition seeking to add new language to the Ohio Revised Code in support of vaccine choice.

On March 3, the Attorney General’s Office received a resubmitted summary for “Vaccine Choice and Anti-Discrimination Act,” a proposed statute (Section 3792.02) to prohibit mandatory vaccinations, vaccination status disclosures and certain other actions regarding vaccinations in Ohio.

Previous versions of this petition were rejected on Dec. 9, 2021, and Feb. 2, 2022, over the summary, and on Jan. 7, 2022, for insufficient signatures.

The attorney general’s role in the petition process is to determine whether the summary is a fair and truthful representation of the proposed statute. The most recent submission does not meet that requirement.  

A response letter sent today to the petitioners says that “the summary does not properly advise a potential signer of the proposed statute’s character and limitations.”

The summary “materially misstates the proposed statute with respect to ‘businesses,’ ” it says. More specifically, the summary:

• “purports to impose restrictions on businesses when the proposed statute does not.”
• “purports to give businesses certain legal protections that the proposed statute does not.”

Finally, the letter says, the summary “fails to make any indication that an ‘estate’ or ‘trust’ would be included in this protected category.”

The petitioners were encouraged to carefully review the summary to ensure that it accurately captures the proposed statute’s definitions, contents and limitations before resubmitting it.

The full text of the rejection letter and the petition can be found at www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov/Petitions.