The state had just passed “the Coronavirus Stop Act” in 2023, which banned nearly all COVID-19 vaccine requirements. If lawmakers did that for COVID-19, Manookian reasoned, they could do the same for all communicable diseases and all medical decisions.
Her theory was right, ultimately.
The bill she penned in the summer of 2024 made it through the Republican-controlled House and Senate in early 2025.
Manookian took to social media to rally support for the legislation as it sat on the desk of Gov. Brad Little.
But the governor vetoed it. In a letter, he explained that he saw the bill as government intrusion on “parents’ freedom to ensure their children stay healthy.” During an outbreak, he said, schools wouldn’t be able to send home students “with highly contagious conditions” like measles.
Manookian tried again days after the veto. In the next version of the bill, protections during a disease outbreak applied only to “healthy” people.
This time, Little signed it.
Weeks after the signing, Manookian joined like-minded advocates on a stage in Washington, D.C., for a launch event for the MAHA Institute, a group with strong ties to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (MAHA stands for Make America Healthy Again.) The new Health and Human Services secretary had denounced vaccines for years before President Donald Trump appointed him.
At the gathering, Manookian announced her next mission: to make it “a societal norm and to codify it in law” that nobody can dictate any other person’s medical choices.
“We’re going to roll that out to other states, and we’re going to make America free again,” Manookian told the audience in May.
Manookian’s commitment to bring along the rest of the country has continued ever since.
Her nonprofit, the Health Freedom Defense Fund, is now distributing model legislation and a how-to guide, with talking points to persuade legislators. Manookian said in podcast interviews that she is working with the nonprofit Stand For Health Freedom to mobilize activists in every state.
