A real question for Arizona Republican legislators and the constituents who support them: At what point does political convenience cross the line into public endangerment, and what are we going to do about it? 

Now that the 2025 legislative session is wrapping up, lawmakers will return to their districts — but they should not do so without accountability. Despite the fact that this year marked the second-worst measles outbreak in the U.S. in the last 25 years, our Legislature once again became a platform for anti-vaccine rhetoric. Time, space, and legitimacy were given to misinformation in public committee hearings. The question we should all be asking is: When will our lawmakers finally recognize the very real danger they’re enabling? Will they only stop advancing these bills through committee once measles is confirmed in our state — (although it is likely here already). Will it take families being barred from accompanying loved ones to chemotherapy appointments, or worse, will they act only after unvaccinated children in their districts begin to die from preventable diseases? 

Vaccines should not be a political issue. Disease does not care whether you are Republican, Democrat, or independent. Viruses do not discriminate by ideology. Yet here we are, forced to confront the political reality that every single Republican lawmaker in Arizona voted in favor of four anti-vaccine bills this session. Not one offered amendments to reduce the harm these bills represent. Not one stood up for our children and families. 

As a mother, I don’t want common-sense protections like vaccines to become more politicized. But when one party now uniformly supports legislation that undermines preventable negative health outcomes, it becomes impossible to ignore. 

This is not leadership – it is an abdication of duty. It’s especially confounding because many Republican legislators do know that vaccines save lives. Instead of standing up to the anti-science fringe in their party, they chose to let harmful bills advance and counted on Governor Hobbs to be the adult in the room and issue vetoes. While we are deeply grateful to the governor for the vetoes, that’s not how democracy should work – and that’s not how health policy should happen. 

Let’s look at some of what they voted for: 

HB2063 required schools to include information about vaccine exemptions in every communication regarding immunizations. Rather than empowering parents, this bill creates doubt and confusion, making exemptions seem as normal as vaccination. Sarette McIntosh, a local parent, shared how this policy endangers children like her son, who battled neuroblastoma as a young child. With a compromised immune system from intensive cancer treatment, even a routine infection could have sent him to the hospital — or worse. She questions why the Legislature is so intent on highlighting parental choice when it comes to vaccinations, yet shows no concern for the safety of children with cancer and other immunocompromising conditions who didn’t choose their circumstances. Shouldn’t our priority be making it easier for them to live as normally as possible and go to school, especially when they’re already facing so much hardship? 

HB2257 prohibited DCS from maintaining its current policy of placing babies and toddlers aged 0-5 into vaccinated foster homes unless the biological parents consent to unvaccinated familial placement. This bill removed important protections for the most vulnerable children. There is no shortage of fully vaccinated foster families willing to take in these young children, so why does the Legislature value the demands of unvaccinated foster parents more than the safety of foster babies and toddlers? When these children get sick, it’s not just a tragedy — Arizona taxpayers bear the legal liability and cost of their care. 

HB2012 banned employers, including hospitals, from requiring vaccines that have received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). Dr. Alison Foster, MD, a local emergency doctor, warned that this bill could lead to outbreaks among health care workers, eroding the workforce and threatening all patients — not just those vulnerable to infection. “In a pandemic, an outbreak among unvaccinated staff could rapidly decimate the workforce, leading to dangerous care delays, overcrowded emergency rooms, and worse outcomes for all patients — not just those with infectious diseases. We would repeat the chaos and heartbreak of past pandemics,” she said, “potentially on an even more devastating scale.” 

These bills are not benign. They are part of a broader pattern of putting politics before health and ideology before evidence. Legislators who know better, please, start acting like it. Stop placating extremists and start standing up for the safety of all Arizonans — especially children, the immunocompromised, and those who cannot advocate for themselves. Your constituents are watching, and we will remember who stood up for science, for facts, and for our children — and who didn’t.

Ashley Chambers is a lawyer and executive director at Arizona Families for Vaccines, a bipartisan nonprofit.