When Bridget Kearns’ kids were younger, she agonized over whether they should get vaccinated. Working as an occupational therapist for children, Kearns had talked with several mothers who believed vaccines were harmful.
Kearns, who lives in Wareham, also struggled with the link between vaccines and abortion: Though vaccines do not contain fetal tissue, the manufacturing process for some involves fetal cell lines created from abortions performed decades ago.
Still, she said she felt pressure to follow the example most other parents were setting.
“Early on, when you are trying to get your child healthcare and you’re rejecting vaccines, it is very hard,” she said.
For a few years Kearns was indecisive; as a result, her kids were partially vaccinated. But then, one day, her dilemma disappeared.
“I kept praying on it and I really remember this moment when I really felt like I heard God in that moment. And what he said was that I have put my faith in man, and really where I needed to put my faith was in God,” she said.
From that point on, Kearns decided to seek religious vaccine exemptions for both her children. They’re now 16 and 19 years old, and they’ve never gotten another shot. Kearns — who grew up Catholic but now describes herself as a Christian, and says she’s more likely to find God outdoors than inside a church — is resolute in her decision.
“Leaning into God on my own, I felt really that my relationship with God got so much better and so much clearer. I’m looking at good and evil and always trying to discern good from evil,” she said.
A growing trend in Massachusetts
In 1987, about 150 Massachusetts kindergartners received religious exemptions, allowing them to not get one or more vaccines. That group of students accounted for less than 0.2% of the total incoming class that year.
But over the past few decades, families requesting religious exemptions have steadily increased. For the 2024-25 school year, that number reached 870 — just over 1.3% of the incoming kindergarten class — an all-time high.
Maryellen Kottenstette opposes some vaccines, in part because of the use of fetal cell lines. Kottenstette is a devout Catholic and abortion opponent.
The Vatican has offered qualified support for the use of vaccines made with fetal cell lines.
Yet the Pontifical Academy for Life issued a statement urging Catholics to seek alternative vaccines if possible — and to put pressure on leaders to make new vaccines that aren’t derived from fetal cell lines.
“They should take recourse if necessary to the use of conscientious objection with regard to the use of vaccines produced by means of cell lines of aborted fetal origin,” that statement read.
It’s not just Christians citing religion for avoiding vaccines; historically, some Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh people have also expressed vaccine hesitancy due to their interpretation of faith, according to an NIH study.
Omar Al-Farouq, an immigrant from Afghanistan, said in an email that he can’t understand why American schools accept that his children don’t eat pork, but say they should get vaccines that include pork gelatin as an ingredient.
When religion and health intertwine
Serious injuries from vaccines are extremely rare, occurring once in many thousands or millions of doses administered, according to research by the NIH.
For some parents, experiencing one of these events is a powerful catalyst for their health and religion to intertwine.
Kottenstette’s daughter Cecilia started experiencing debilitating seizures after receiving a round of vaccines at her 4-month-old wellness visit. The family said those recurrent spasms led to vision impairment and developmental delays. She died at the age of 10.
“She was pretty much wheelchair-bound by the time she died. She was just skin and bones,” Kottenstette said.
The federal vaccine injury court ruled that Cecilia was harmed by a dose of the DTaP vaccine and awarded the family damages. That ruling was later upheld by a federal appeals court.
Cecilia did receive a medical exemption before she passed away. But Kottenstette argues that religious exemptions are a better way to prevent harm than medical exemptions; the latter, she feels, are often only implemented once an adverse reaction has already occurred. In Massachusetts, it’s also much easier for families to obtain a religious exemption.
Candice Edwards said her son Oliver has several health conditions she attributes to a vaccine injury. Now she feels her Christian duty is to protect her child from harm, and cites the Psalms in the Old Testament: “Children are a heritage from the Lord.”
Edwards founded the group Health Action Massachusetts, which is currently advocating for Beacon Hill to preserve the religious vaccine exemption. In discussing her activism, she also reflected on the support she’s received from the priest at her Episcopal Church.
“He said to me, 'God would never want you to vaccinate your child again, knowing what you know,'” Edwards recalled. “‘God would never want you to set your child on fire to keep other children warm.’”
Social and cultural issues
All these families’ perspectives point to a dynamic that vaccine advocates sometimes miss, according to Christopher Scheitle, a sociologist at West Virginia University who studies the relationship between faith and vaccine hesitancy.
“A lot of work in medical communication and science communication sort of relies on what scholars call the deficit model ... the idea that if people just knew more, they would agree or they would be in support of vaccines,” Scheitle said.
In fact, he said, research shows that it’s not just about knowledge or information; there are significant cultural and sociocultural barriers, too. This is particularly true among conservative Christians.
“Once you account for a person’s perception of God as not only able to intervene in the world but willing to intervene in the world, that explains away the difference between conservative Christians and more liberal Christians,” he said.
And, Scheitle added, some believe that suffering itself holds a kind of redemptive value.
In the end, the debate over vaccine mandates in Massachusetts is a fundamental conflict between core American values: the freedom of parents to make decisions for their children, the liberty of religious practice, and the state’s responsibility to protect the commonwealth.
