Bill > HB1041

This bill, known as the Louisiana Medical Freedom Act, aims to protect individuals' rights to make their own decisions about medical interventions without facing discrimination or exclusion. It prohibits business entities, including those for-profit or non-profit, from denying access to services, products, education, or transportation based on a person's refusal of a medical intervention, which is broadly defined to include procedures, treatments, drugs, and tests like vaccines and swabs. Similarly, employers cannot mandate medical interventions as a condition of employment, and ticket issuers cannot deny access to events for this reason. Schools, daycares, and institutions of learning are also prevented from requiring medical interventions for attendance, employment, or participation in activities, though they can still enforce existing immunization requirements. Government entities are barred from requiring medical interventions for access to services, public facilities, or employment. The bill also states that individuals should not receive different compensation or benefits based on their refusal of a medical intervention, and personal protective equipment requirements must be consistent with safety regulations and not discriminate based on medical intervention status, with exceptions for certain emergency authorizations. The act allows for enforcement by the attorney general or prosecutors, with potential awards for attorney's fees and court costs, and clarifies that healthy individuals or asymptomatic carriers cannot be excluded from public activities for declining a medical intervention during an outbreak. Notably, these prohibitions do not apply to healthcare facilities, licensed healthcare providers, or healthcare employers, and the act does not prevent compliance with child welfare or tuberculosis control laws.