Florida AG warns Catholic schools: accept vaccine exemptions or risk losing voucher funding, letter says

Attorney General James Uthmeier is putting the Roman Catholic Church on notice – if they take taxpayer-funded vouchers for their schools, they should accept vaccine exemptions for students, too.

In a letter sent Friday to the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, Uthmeier, citing the Catholic Catechism, Pope Leo, and scripture, argued Catholic doctrine does not allow its schools to reject vaccine exemptions for religious reasons.

"I therefore urge Catholic schools to comply with Florida law and grant religious exemptions to school vaccine policies. Failure to comply could jeopardize eligibility for state educational scholarship programs," Uthmeier wrote in a letter addressed to FCCB executive director Michael Sheedy.

The letter comes 10 days before most school districts in the state open their doors for the 2026-2027 school year.

Many Catholic schools in Florida accept students who pay tuition with help from the state's private school vouchers. Currently, more than 500,000 students across the state participate in the program. As of March 2026, about a quarter of the state's education budget goes to voucher programs, up from 12 percent in 2021.

In response to Uthmeier's letter, the conference issued a statement saying they are reviewing the letter and will respond to the attorney general.

"Be assured, Florida's Catholic schools are operating in accord with the law and Church teaching," wrote Michele Taylor, a spokesperson for the conference.

In his letter, Uthmeier did not single out one of the state's seven dioceses, but did refer to the immunization policies of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee.

Uthmeier and several of Florida's top Republican leaders and their staff are Catholics, including Gov. Ron DeSantis and incoming Education Commissioner Henry Mack.

DeSantis has pushed to repeal all vaccine mandates and expand the state's vaccine exemption requirements. All legislative attempts have failed, including a bill earlier this year which would have created a new "conscience" category for parents to opt out of immunizations for their children and require health care workers to provide alternative vaccine schedules.

The conference has lobbied against these bills, urging lawmakers to keep vaccine requirements.

Citing church-affiliated statements, Uthmeier's letter argues vaccines aren't a "moral obligation" and should not be compelled if they are derived from fetal tissue.

The Catholic Church is strongly against abortion, but its stance on vaccines derived from fetal tissue is more nuanced. The Vatican has said it is "morally acceptable" to use cell lines from aborted fetuses if there are no other alternatives available.

Under Florida law, the following vaccines are required for K-12 schools: Polio, measles (rubeola), rubella, pertussis (whooping cough), mumps, diphtheria and tetanus.

The rubella vaccine, a part of the MMR vaccine, was created using the cell lines of an aborted fetus but is permissible because there are no other alternatives to prevent the contagious and deadly disease.

In his letter, Uthmeier quotes a statement from the Vatican on the morality of using COVID-19 vaccines, which states "practical reason makes evident that vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary."