Regarding the optout provision:
We rate Perry’s claim Barely True.
Editor’s note: This statement was rated Barely True when it was published. On July 27, 2011, we changed the name for the rating to Mostly False.
Whenever the liberal Politifact Texas (run by the liberal Austin Statesman) has a chance to call out Republicans based on arguable points, they do.
So take with a grain of salt. Their “Barely true” really means “true, but we liberals dont like him saying it”
Politifact in the detail says:
“The order included an opt-out “in order to protect the right of parents to be the final authority on their children’s health care.” Perry ordered the Department of State Health Services to allow parents dissenting for philosophical or religious reasons to request a conscientious objection affidavit form. That form, which has been available since 2003, enables parents to enroll their children in public school even if they lack state-required immunizations. It’s automatically granted as long as parents provide all required information.”
We’ve been saying this all along. There is an opt-out for immunizations in Texas, so the ‘mandate’ doesnt force any parent to make their kids take an injection. If they dont want it, they can decide not to get it. A truly mandatory rule would have no exceptions or optout provisions.
Perry explained this honestly, but Politifact, which has called true statements by other Republican leaders as ‘lies’ decided to squint and squawk and call a true statement ‘barely true’.
“This statement was rated Barely True when it was published. On July 27, 2011, we changed the name for the rating to Mostly False.” ... just in case he ran for President, they wanted to ding him for good measure. Yeah, how trustwothy is THAT?!?