Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed into law one of the most controversial measures from last week’s special legislative session — a bill giving the New Mexico Department of Health unilateral authority over the state’s vaccination requirements for schoolchildren.
The measure, Senate Bill 3, was the final bill awaiting the governor’s signature from the special session she supposedly called to address federal budget cuts to pork, although none of the supposed funding lost under President Donald Trump’s administration was addressed.
Unlike the other four bills she signed last week, the governor held off on signing this one, ultimately approving it on Wednesday with a scathing message attacking both Republicans and members of her own party.
Because SB 3 failed to achieve a two-thirds majority vote in the House, it will not take effect until December 31, rather than immediately as Democrats had intended. The bill allows the Department of Health to determine which vaccines are required for children independently of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — effectively centralizing vaccine authority in Santa Fe.
The measure was pitched as a response to what the governor’s administration described as “confusion” surrounding shifting CDC guidance on the latest COVID-19 boosters earlier this fall. But opponents warned it would strip away federal guardrails, politicize vaccine policy, and expand government power over parental and medical decisions.
In her signing message, Lujan Grisham lashed out at House Republicans for unanimously opposing the bill, accusing them of “placing the lives of thousands of New Mexicans at risk as we head into peak season for respiratory illnesses such as RSV, the flu, and COVID-19.” She also took the unusual step of publicly rebuking her own Democratic allies for not “defending the urgent need” for the legislation during floor debate.
“I am disappointed with the lack of procedural advocacy by my own party,” she wrote. “They appeared unprepared to defend the urgent need for SB 3.”
Critics say the governor’s rhetoric ignores deeper concerns about government overreach and parental rights. Republican lawmakers argued during the session that SB 3 was unnecessary and dangerous, particularly as trust in public health institutions continues to erode following years of pandemic mandates. They said the governor is attempting to consolidate health power under the state after years of mismanagement and inconsistent COVID-19 policies that devastated schools, families, and small businesses.
Activists across the state immediately reacted to the signing. Sarah Smith, a vocal critic of the measure, posted online shortly after the announcement:
“😳💉💉BREAKING — AS EXPECTED, GOVERNOR LUJAN GRISHAM HAS SIGNED THE NEW VACCINE BILL INTO LAW. This means that vaccines are now mandated for babies and little kids who are in daycare or early childhood programs,” she wrote, warning that religious and medical exemptions “are still allowed, for now.”
Smith added that the law aligns New Mexico’s policy with the American Academy of Pediatrics, a group that has backed removing religious exemptions and expanding COVID-19 mandates for children. “We must stay vigilant,” she urged supporters, linking to an informational page on how to file exemptions and urging New Mexicans to organize for the 2025 session, when more vaccine-related proposals could surface.
Republicans say SB 3 represents another step in the governor’s long pattern of pushing top-down mandates without public input. After years of shuttered schools, forced masking, and business restrictions, they argue, New Mexico parents have had enough.
NM legislators and the governor are playing doctor mandating vaccines. They have no idea whether a shot is going to be a good thing for the child or not.
Too many children have been injured by the numerous vaccines mandates to go to public schools. This should be in the hands of the parents to make these decisions, not politicians. The C19 is not even a vaccine, it’s gene therapy.
Now even to homeschooling. Talk about over reach!
so WUHAN LUJAN is at it again……….
If anyone ever had any doubt that the Democrat party is the party of big money, this bill and the rhetoric endorsing it should remove all doubt.
As the CDC and FDA shift back towards legitimate science, the state has now embraced non government orgs. that are controlled by big pharma, and big med.
Evidence shows that the most at risk group for serious side effects from the Covid vaccine are children. Coumo decided to solve his states
pension problem by killing off seniors, MLG appears to be trying to solve this states child abuse problems by killing off children.
your kids belong to MLG. SHE DECIDES NOT YOU. and NM accepts that. its beyond shameful. covid vaccines for kids are criminal
Is anyone brave enough to charge her as the demonic criminal that she is? It’s time for accounability! Remember their own words, “No one is above the law.”
More than 22,600 voters in NM have newly registered as Republican since Nov. 2024, more than 1,400 in the last month alone.
That represents about a significant increase in Republican voters in this state.
This legislation is likely to drive an even bigger shift to the right this month.
The sooner we arrest and drag that psycho out of the roundhouse the better off New Mexico will be!! Moochie Loserjan-Gruesome is NOT a doctor,nor does she have any medical background. The only reasons she pushes bills is dependent on who greases her palm!
She needs to take all the shots she us wanting to give to the children of NM. She has no heart or soul. I hope she pays dearly fir her stupid
People are tired if your s**t, MLG.
In all this time with all this complaining, why has nothing actually been done? Why is no one addressing this? Where is the Republican party with lawsuits against her? Where are they? All huddled together making no changes whatsoever. Get together Republicans and get something done. What are you so D afraid of? She has you all suppressed and gasping in fear as well? Do something !!
So between killing babies on demand…taxpayer funded….
Mutilating children with made up gender ideologies…
and
Now forcing medication on our children….
I’d say the ONLY option we have is to refuse/get an exemption/or ideally refuse to send them to school/daycare.
The people running (ruining) this state are EVIL.
TAKE YOUR KIDS OUT OF THE SYSTEM. Save their lives.
Until NM stops voting for democrats, this is what we get. Turn NM Red!
I can tell you where to stick your vaccine.
Here’s what may stop this. ACIP recommendations, not Academy of Pediatrics is what Medicare and Medicaid will cover. When parents have to pay out of pocket for something they dont even want, we’ll start to hear outcry.
Well, this should clear out more people from the State. This is forcing the people that cannot leave the State into vaccine slavery. What a complete and utter sham. She is as big a POS as her mentor Newsome.
5 minutes in a dark alley….I’d even give the Oompa Loompa a head start.
The article below explains and chronicles the rise in the number of vaccines babies and children receive. The vaccine schedule is up to 18 vaccines for 2025.
Healthy babies have died after receiving them, because their immune systems aren’t developed enough. It is criminal and diabolical, but many pediatricians deny vaccines caused the deaths.
https://circleofmamas.com/health-news/injecting-poisons-a-history-of-the-syringe/
Can’t fool us twice, MLG.
I did not vote for MLG as my Governor.
She might have authority to sign laws.
I have the right to objects and ignore those laws whenever ethically possible.
I said what I said.
Fine. If the State of New Mexico can opt out of following federal health guidelines and create it’s own vaccine recommendations for school children, then there is now no reason why each local school district can’t also opt out of following the State guidelines and create it’s own vaccine recommendations for their own local school children. Especially if they choose to follow the federal guidelines, and especially if it is in line with parents’ wishes. And if the State of New Mexico has an issue with that, then any and all school districts can take that lawsuit all the way to the Supreme Court.
So this slayer of the unborn is upset that she cannot implement her evil dictates immediately but must wait a couple of months. She is truly a despicable creature.
I doubt MLG, MLG’s children and grandchildren received the COVID jab. Probably several of her staff also did not get the jab. The NM Dept of Health has a lot of old and young hippies who also were/are leary of “vaccines”. Medical interventions, like vaccines or masks, cannot be forced on to anyone. You have the right to not comply with any medical interventions.