LANSING, Mich. — House Republican lawmakers are teeing up legislation that would prohibit discrimination in Michigan based on someone's vaccination status.

The bill, which was introduced last month and promoted in a press conference on Tuesday, would add vaccination status to the categories protected from discrimination under Michigan's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. The law already prohibits discrimination based on qualifications such as religion, race, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status.

Under the changes proposed by state Rep. Jim DeSana, R-Carleton, a public or private employer would not be able to reject a candidate, terminate an employee or otherwise discriminate against an individual based solely on his or her vaccination status.

DeSana, who stood alongside several Republican lawmakers and the group Michigan for Vaccine Choice, said the legislation was inspired in part by the coronavirus pandemic but would encompass more than just the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Three, four, five years later, after this, some would assume that the fight for vaccine freedom is on the up and we're winning, and that would be the wrong thing to think," DeSana said. "There are little victories, but until we get true vaccine freedom where someone could refuse to be vaccinated for anything that they do in life — to travel, to get on a plane, to go into a government building — we will not have true freedom until that happens."

DeSana's legislation would not apply to child care organizations, medical employers whose employees' work requires vaccination, or employers whose qualification for federal funding requires compliance with certain vaccine schedules.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and Senate Democratic leadership did not immediately take a position on the legislation.

State Rep. Brad Paquette, R-Niles, introduced separate legislation last week that would effectively eliminate MDHHS administrative rules that require parents opting out from the normal vaccine schedule and wishing their child to attend a private or public school to visit their local health department to be educated on the risks of opting out. The administrative rule was implemented in December 2014 under the Republican administration of Gov. Rick Snyder.

Instead, the legislation would require the state health department to adhere to the law's language, which only requires a parent to submit a written statement or form to school administrators informing them of an objection to the required immunization.

Between 2009 and 2023, the percentage of Michigan students waiving at least one vaccine reached a peak in 2010, at 8.6%, then declined gradually through 2016, at which point, according to MDHHS data, the waiver rate began to increase slightly again.

Between 2022 and 2023, the student waiver rate increased from 4.8% to 5.7%. In 2023, about 3,155 of those waivers were submitted on behalf of private school students and 17,432 for public school students.

The increase in vaccination waivers in the years since the pandemic has been "pretty drastic" and occurring across many parts of the state, said Norm Hess, executive director for the Michigan Association of Local Public Health. The public health community, he said, is fearful that if the education element is taken away, as the legislation intends, the waiver rate will "go through the roof."

"We believe that with the amount of misinformation that is circulating on social media and other sources, that it is really imperative that parents get accurate and complete information before making the decision to request a waiver," Hess said.

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