First Lady Casey DeSantis hosts parental empowerment and medical freedom roundtable
Press release from the Office of Governor Ron DeSantis
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Today, First Lady Casey DeSantis hosted a roundtable alongside Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, joined by Florida mothers, to discuss parental empowerment, medical freedom, and the importance of transparency and informed consent in decisions affecting children’s health.
The conversation focused on the realities parents face every day when making decisions about food, healthcare, and medical choices for their children, and the need for trust, accurate information, and accountability across systems that directly impact families.
“Medical care should respect informed consent and parental choice,” said First Lady Casey DeSantis. “Moms from across the state have struggled to find pediatricians willing to care for their children because of vaccine status. Their stories reinforce why Florida must protect families from being excluded from care.”
Through the Healthy Florida First initiative, Florida has prioritized transparency, independent testing, and accountability in the food supply. Earlier this month, the Florida Department of Health (DOH) released infant formula testing results after analyzing 24 products sold online and in stores across the state, reviewing samples from seven major brands for heavy metals and pesticides. The testing identified elevated levels of certain heavy metals compared to health-based screening benchmarks, including mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and lead.
Building on that work, DOH tested 46 candy products from 10 companies for heavy metals. Arsenic was detected in 28 of the products tested, prompting further evaluation of potential exposure risks, particularly for children. The results discussed during today’s roundtable are intended to provide families with clear, accessible information and promote accountability for products widely consumed by Florida’s children.
“Florida parents have an absolute right to make informed medical decisions for their children without coercion, including the decision to receive or decline vaccines,” said State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo. ”It will always be unethical for pediatricians to deny care based on a parent’s vaccination preferences, because coercion undermines the principle of informed consent.”
The roundtable also addressed parental rights and medical freedom, emphasizing the importance of informed consent and access to accurate, complete information about medical decisions, including vaccines, without coercion or fear of losing access to care. Under Governor Ron DeSantis’ leadership, Florida has led the nation in rejecting one-size-fits-all mandates, defending parental rights, and prioritizing evidence-based decision-making while safeguarding individual choice.
Additionally, the First Lady emphasized that Healthy Florida First will continue to expand testing beyond infant formula and candy, reinforcing Florida’s commitment to empowering parents with facts and ensuring confidence in the safety and integrity of the food supply.
Full infant formula and candy testing results are available at ExposingFoodToxins.com.
Any picture with Ms DeSantis & Ladapo should stop anyone taking this seriously…..
The financial incentives built in for pediatricians to pressure parents to vaccinate children is a big problem.
Mandatory vaccine schedules for school attendance is a big problem.
Both of these approaches protect the sellers and providers, rather than children.
Kids have gotten sicker and sicker as the number of vaccines has climbed. Maybe there was a tipping point somewhere that changed vaccines from an overall positive to an overall negative?
I’m really thankful that these issues are being examined, rather than continuing to put concerned parents on guilt trips and using scare tactics to force them to act contrary to their concerns.
If vaccines are necessary and life saving, then persuade parents. Don’t intimidate and pressure them.
Florida parents tend to disagree with one another on all manner of issues. But when it comes to common sense health mandates in schools, they are at least united in their opposition to the kind of changes Florida’s leaders are pushing.
According to a new statewide poll from the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab, fully 63 percent of Floridians oppose eliminating vaccine mandates for school kids. That’s no close call. And again, that news comes at the same time that the state’s leaders are trying to force the same change that parents don’t want.
Vaccine mandates for school kids are not a mere symbolic issue, though. A mandate is a time-tested public health measure designed with a single, simple goal: to prevent foreseeable harm to children.
In the real world, a school vaccine mandate is what prevents measles from making the rounds through a kindergarten class. It protects the classmate who is battling cancer from any preventable illness that would otherwise kill her. It keeps a house with a newborn baby brother from getting sick when the older sibling inevitably picks up the disease of the week from school.
Florida’s leaders want to pretend that this issue is about “parental choice” pitted against state overreach. Parents have unique rights when it comes to their kids because kids have unique needs. And because we as a society have an obligation to protect kids from things we all know will harm them.
That is how most Florida families see it. Schools are communal spaces and the majority of those who share those spaces are in favor of common sense rules for their protection. This is by no means just a Democratic position. Public reporting on the UNF poll revealed that Republicans were evenly divided, but Democrats were overwhelmingly opposed to eliminating school mandates.
In other words, even among the Governor’s own political party, there is no mandate for dismantling mandates.
Tallahassee needs to hear that. It will be far easier for families to forget to vaccinate their children if the vaccine mandate disappears than it will be for state leaders to restore it. And outbreaks of preventable illness are not merely theoretical—they disrupt school time, lead to quarantines, impose costly emergency responses, and they land kids in the hospital who shouldn’t be sick in the first place.
Florida can keep kids healthy without trampling parent’s rights. Protect legitimate exemptions. Protect due process.
But don’t toss aside the sensible default rule that makes Florida’s schools safe for all kids.
Tallahassee should not be walking down this road if Florida families don’t want to go there.
Very well written and to the point. As a retired elementary teacher, I know how germs and diseases can easily spread not only through a classroom, but the entire school.
Good post Joseph. Thanks. The governor and fellow “freedom” snowflakes thinks that means free to infect other kids and citizens, but meanwhile want to dictate to Floridians what they should do about family planning and troubled kids.
I agree with the vaccine that were on the books pre covid. There has been enough studies done that show co vid vaccine can be dangerous for younger people. Measles, chicken pox type vaccines that have sustained testing through the years are fine.
I still can’t believe Florida voters were almost duped into electing a drug and sex crazed Democrat instead of the best governor in the entire country. All you loyal Democrats who voted for Gillium….shame on you!