A wave of anti-science bills have been introduced in statehouses across the United States this year, pushed by special interests who have close ties to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
An Associated Press investigation found more than 420 bills attacking longstanding public health protections such as vaccines, milk safety and fluoride in most states. More than two dozen have already been enacted or adopted.
They are part of an organized and politically savvy effort that normalizes the ideas pushed by the anti-vaccine movement that Kennedy has helped lead for years. His Make America Healthy Again agenda masks anti-science ideas while promoting goals like making food more natural or reducing chemicals. Meanwhile, vaccination rates continue to decline, allowing the infectious diseases measles and whooping cough to reappear, while Kennedy has sought to broadly remake federal public health policies, including on fluoride and vaccines.
Kennedy’s allies dispute whether his agenda is anti-science or driven by conspiracy theories, but many experts disagree.
Below are some key takeaways from the AP investigation.
Hundreds of anti-science bills introduced
The AP focused on three public health policies (vaccines, water fluoridation and milk safety) that have clear medical evidence but are targets of the MAHA movement.
The AP searched for 2025 legislation in all 50 states, analyzing bills compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures and bill-tracking software Plural to determine whether they undermined science-based human health protections.
Anti-vaccine bills (at least 350 of them) were by far the most common. Most have not passed, but at least two dozen anti-vaccine laws have been adopted in 11 states this year.
The AP found more than 70 bills that would reduce access to fluoride or make it easier to sell or consume raw dairy products. Many fluoride bills would outright ban its addition to water systems.
Most of the bills that were signed into law were supported by at least one of four Kennedy-related national groups: MAHA Action, Stand for Health Freedom, the National Vaccine Information Center, and the Weston A. Price Foundation. The groups also opposed dozens of science-driven bills.
These groups are part of a well-organized effort with a clear strategy to change policies.
The groups the AP tracked send alerts, organize phone campaigns, flood lawmakers’ inboxes and social media, hold Zoom calls with activists across the country and send members to testify in statehouses.
Their work reflects the growing influence of the small anti-vaccine movement, said Northe Saunders, president of American Families for Vaccines. Advocates know how to raise money for candidates and create anti-vaccine advocates and use legislative maneuvering to delay some bills and help others overcome obstacles, he said.
“They’re really a sophisticated political operation, as opposed to just a couple of parents who don’t want to vaccinate their kids,” Saunders said.
The groups defended their work and some leaders said they were pleased with their success. The NVIC leader said the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic was harsh and a wake-up call in state legislatures, where “lawmakers understood the danger to liberty posed by vaccine mandates.”
One MAHA leader who joined the Zoom calls said their positions “are rooted in credible scientific literature and the public’s right to make informed decisions,” while the current leader of MAHA Action said the goal of the calls is to educate people. He objected to the term anti-science, saying: “It is simply an inflammatory statement intended to make millions of people think that something bad is happening.”
The president of Weston Price told the AP that the benefits of raw milk are immense and the risks minimal, denying that such beliefs are conspiracies.
Stand for Health Freedom did not respond to emails. A spokesman for Kennedy and the Department of Health and Human Services declined to comment to the AP for this story.
Many people involved in groups pushing anti-science bills have built lucrative careers off of their anti-science stance.
Powerful vaccine advocates and people who sell potentially harmful products, like raw milk, are benefiting from the push to make anti-science policies law across the United States.
Whether advancing their careers or selling more products, these leaders are finding ways to benefit.
One way activists promote those ideas is through state legislation. Supporters argued that making money or increasing sales for businesses, such as dairy farmers, was a reason to pass some of the bills that would eliminate consumer protections, the AP found. In at least one case, that reasoning is detailed in the text of the bill.
Growing anti-science sentiment has a human cost and is already taking its toll
For example, vaccination rates continue to fall, making it easier for infectious diseases to spread.
Ashlee and Erik Dahlberg of Lowell, Indiana, lost their 8-year-old son Liam to a vaccine-preventable disease in April.
“I thought having the vaccines would protect our children,” Erik Dahlberg said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t happen that way because other children, other adults, also need to get the vaccine for it to work.”
Liam was particularly vulnerable because he had asthma and severe allergies. He was vaccinated against Haemophilus influenzae type b, or Hib, but it still caused his brain to swell and killed him less than two days after he complained of a headache. Hib is transmitted through respiratory droplets, often spread through coughing and sneezing. Doctors said Liam’s case was likely due to someone not being vaccinated, Ashlee Dahlberg said.
With two other children, the Dahlbergs worry about living in one of the many American communities with low vaccination rates. State statistics show that one in five kindergartners in their county do not meet vaccination requirements.
“There is no pain worse than losing a child,” said Ashlee Dahlberg. “I do not live, nor can I, live the loss of another.”
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.