Amish fight New York vaccine mandate for children: ‘Left with no choice’

By Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall

Thanks to Linda Goudsmit for sending us this article and her editorial opinion on the article.


Amish fight New York vaccine mandate for children: ‘Left with no choice’

Lifesite News / Friday, August 28, 2026

New York’s large Amish population is threatening a mass exodus from the state as a court battle against forced vaccines for children rages on. The Amish are now pinning their hopes on the case being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Governor Kathy Hochul has continued to insist that Amish children attending school in one-room schoolhouses — which receive no state or federal funding — must submit to her state’s tyrannical vaccine mandates or incur massive fines. 

New York requires schoolchildren to receive between 24 and 27 shots, according to the New York Department of Health (DOH) vaccine schedule. 

So far, three state-targeted Amish schools have racked up a total of $118,000 in civil penalties. 

The attorney for the Amish explained to the New York Post that they could only pay if the state seized their land.  

Up until 2019, the Empire State allowed religious exemptions for vaccines required for schoolchildren but rescinded those exemptions after a measles outbreak in an Orthodox Jewish community.

“Have we gotten to a place where we aren’t going to make room for the Amish anymore?” plaintiff attorney Hiram Sasser asked.

“When you think of Americana — apple pie, fireworks — the Amish are on that list. They’re part of the American fabric. They’re a good litmus test of our religious liberty and our tolerance,” Sasser told the Post.

“Watch ‘Little House on the Prairie.’ It’s the one-room schoolhouse and Laura Ingalls Wilder teaching the kids. It’s a way of life that used to predominate across America, but the Amish are still holding on to it. We’ve acknowledged that as a nation and given them their space this whole time. And now that’s being tested,” Sasser said.

“Hochul previously told a church congregation that those who refuse Big Pharma’s vaccines on religious grounds ‘aren’t listening to God and what God wants,’” Tucker Carlson’s Friday news brief noted.  

“Who does she think she is?” he asked. 

Conservative online commentator Liz Churchill expressed similar shock and dismay over Gov. Hochul’s heavy-handedness.

“Kathy Hochul’s New York State is fining the Amish over $100,000 DOLLARS because of their tyrannical vaccine mandate. They’re legally abusing the only people in America who don’t bother anyone,” Churchill wrote on X. 

“Absolute Psychopath,” she added.

https://x.com/liz_churchill10/status/2093180499518689585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2093180499518689585%7Ctwgr%5Ef96482cc992e20a8b7b5032269a94380a408a91f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lifesitenews.com%2Fnews%2Famish-fight-new-york-vaccine-mandate-for-children-left-with-no-choice%2F

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Hochul isn’t the only one condemning the Amish, who only want to be left alone from government overreach.

“The religious exemption in New York State is made up. It’s fake. Because there is no religion that objects to vaccines,” New York Sen. James Skoufis is quoted as saying in the Amish’s petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

New York Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz likewise objected to the notion of religious exemption, claiming, “It is just utter garbage.”

“We, as a peace loving religious group, are sincerely sorry that we are causing the state a prob (sic). We are indeed grateful to the state of NY for the many privileges, freedoms, and protections they have blessed us with, for many years,” plaintiff Ezra Wengerd 55, wrote in a letter shared with reporters. 

“Our Almighty God wants us to fully put our faith and trust in Him. Which is in conflict to put our trust in vaccines. We are also commanded to not be conformed to this world,” he added. 

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Editorial Comments by Linda Goudsmit:

My editorial opinion 082826:

This is a very interesting article because, as usual, the radical leftist democrats are expansionsists who always go too far. The Amish are a self-contained community that abide by the U.S. Constitution and are a threat to no one. What worries me is that our judicial system can no longer be trusted. From lower courts to the U.S. Supreme Court, the system is infested with anti-American, radical leftist judges (often foreign-born) who rely on their political agenda, not the U.S. Constitution, as the foundation for their rulings. Of all the captured and weaponized institutions, the judiciary is by far the most dangerous.

I wish the Amish luck, but I no longer have faith in the Supreme Court as the final authority in upholding their rights. It is interesting that mass exodus from NY is being contemplated by the Amish because the Amish pay federal taxes, property taxes (including school taxes), and sales tax in every state. If the Amish leave it is not the taxes they pay that is significant to me, it is the $1-$3 billion dollars in real property that could be confiscated or sold to BlackRock, State Street, etc. Perhaps the outrageous pressure that Kathy Hochul is applying has more to do with Amish property than Amish refusing her outrageous vaccine mandate for Amish children. 

I always said that the War on America would come down to parents protecting their children because the insidious War on America targets the nations’ children––including Amish children. So, in the end, it may be Amish parents whose steadfast commitment to their faith (they are Christians not Mennonites), family, and flag will lead the opposition to the globalist land grabbers.

The Amish practice Christianity. They are Protestants who separated from the Mennonites in the late 1690s. Their leader was Jakob Ammann which explains why they are called Amish. The Amish live separately from modern American society, the Mennonites live more integrated modern lives. The fight in NY with the Amish is very significant––if the Amish lose in court it is my prediction that there will be a mass biblical exodus to a free state like Florida. The Amish will never ever allow their children to be jabbed with any experimental, untested, unsafe, mRNA shot. 

If we take a few steps back and consider the gestalt of the globalist War on America (and on Western civilization), we can see the globalist forest is world domination and each tree represents a part of the forest that has been politicized to ultimately impose the globalist Unistate on all of humanity. There are giant sequoias that represent the religious wars: Islam attacking the entire Western Judeo-Christian tradition. There are giant spruce trees that represent politicized medicine. Giant fir trees for politicized/propagandized education. And giant oaks that represent the politicized judiciary. The list, varied as the species of trees, goes on and on. 

If we take a step back we can see that we are in a time of war that cannot be understood without seeing the entire forest strategically, and how the media is operational tactically. The media is tactically tasked with advancing the globalist echo chamber of false narratives, and also with keeping the public unstable, uncertain, psychologically regressed, off balance, and fearful. The Amish are steadfast and immune to globalist tactics and media intervention, but vulnerable to a globalist land grab if the U.S. Supreme Court votes against them politically. If I prayed I would pray for the Amish to prevail🙏

Time will tell––it always does. 

🥲LG  




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