California may follow Alabama in allowing teenagers to be vaccinated without parental consent

California would allow children aged twelve and up to be vaccinated without their parents' consent. This proposal in the State Senate would follow Alabama law that permits fourteen year old youngsters to authorize their own shots. However, kids in the Golden State could be vaccinated at the age of twelve, which would be the youngest in the nation. Along with Alabama, Oregon allows self-authorization of vaccinations at fifteen, Rhode Island and South Carolina at eleven. Only Washington, D.C., has a lower limit, at age of eleven. California State Senator Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, argues that California already allows those twelve and up to consent to certain vaccines and treatments. Wiener's legislation is permissive, not a mandate, but any vaccination legislation has been hugely controversial in California and elsewhere. Here in Alabama, lawmakers proposed a law back in September that would require youngsters to seek parental consent for vaccinations.