The Florida House Speaker just blocked parental rights – again.
Now DeSantis is calling for a do-over before he leaves office.
But the Republican who killed the parental rights bill was just handed an ambassadorship from Donald Trump.
The Bill Florida Parents Never Got to See
The Florida Senate passed the Medical Freedom Act twice – once during the regular 2026 session and again during a special session in April.
Both times, House Speaker Daniel Perez – a Miami Republican – refused to let the House vote on it.
The bill was straightforward.
Parents would get a conscience-based exemption from school vaccine mandates.
Pharmacists could dispense ivermectin without a prescription.
Doctors who followed the science on ivermectin would get criminal immunity.
Vaccine manufacturers would be banned from paying doctors kickbacks to push shots on families.
https://twitter.com/ReOpenChris/status/2087935483649155438?s=20
Senate President Ben Albritton muscled it through his chamber 23-15.
DeSantis had championed it for two years.
And Perez killed it – not by voting it down, but by ensuring no House member ever filed a companion bill.
DeSantis alleged members were told directly: "don't file on this."
DeSantis called it exactly what it was.
"Not a single Republican House member could even be bothered to file a bill," he posted to X. "Typical political shenanigans."
When Perez finally explained himself, he said the bill "wasn't heard in the committee process" – conveniently ignoring that he was the one who made sure it never got there.
Perez Is Gone. The Bills Are Still Waiting.
Daniel Perez – the man who twice buried DeSantis' top health priority – was rewarded with an ambassadorship to Brazil.
He's moved on.
The bills haven't.
DeSantis has one session left to fix this.
His term ends when Florida swears in a new governor after the August 18 primary.
Former House Speaker Paul Renner – who worked with DeSantis to pass conservative priorities during the "Session of the Century" in 2023 – is calling for the Legislature to return for another special session and get both bills across the finish line.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2087669668425162951?s=20
Renner put it plainly: "Floridians have waited long enough. They have a right to make their own medical decisions without unnecessary government interference."
DeSantis endorsed the call, saying the Legislature "needs to take a mulligan."
The Senate is ready.
It passed the Medical Freedom Act and the AI Bill of Rights – a measure protecting Floridians from AI surveillance and shielding minors from predatory chatbots – by overwhelming margins, including a 37-1 vote on the AI bill during the special session.
The House is the problem.
It always was.
Why One Republican Kept Blocking Parents
Perez's stated rationale was fear – specifically, that Florida's measles vaccination rate would drop below herd immunity thresholds.
He said it himself: "There is some concern here, on my behalf, about children being in school without measles, mumps, polio, and chickenpox vaccines."
That sounds reasonable until you read the bill.
The Medical Freedom Act didn't eliminate vaccine requirements.
It added a conscience exemption – the same way Florida already allows religious exemptions.
Parents who chose not to vaccinate would still receive CDC information materials.
The bill required it. Schools would still know which children were unvaccinated.
Nothing in the legislation prevented Florida from enforcing health protocols during an actual outbreak.
Perez knew this.
He killed it anyway.
Republican pollsters Tony Fabrizio and McLaughlin & Associates reportedly warned that loosening vaccine requirements was "politically risky."
And there it is – a Republican speaker chose his own political calculation over the parental rights agenda that voters sent him to Tallahassee to advance.
DeSantis said what most Floridians were thinking.
Perez "has a personal agenda. He has other things that he's concerned about. He is not governing in the best interests of the people of the state of Florida."
Florida parents are still waiting for a vote they were promised.
Consider what Perez actually blocked.
Trump signed an executive order this year cutting mandatory childhood vaccine recommendations from 18 diseases down to 11. RFK Jr. – Trump's own Health Secretary – has made medical freedom the centerpiece of the Make America Healthy Again agenda.
The president of the United States moved.
The Florida Senate moved.
DeSantis moved.
And one Republican House Speaker decided he knew better than all of them.
The primary is tomorrow.
Whoever wins inherits this fight.
If it's Renner – the man who ran Florida's most consequential legislative session in a generation – he's already promised a Day 1 special session to finish what Perez refused to start.
Florida is supposed to lead.
One Miami Republican made sure it followed instead.
The Legislature gets one more shot to fix that.
Sources:
- "Senate Passes Medical Freedom Act," Florida Senate, March 9, 2026.
- A.G. Gancarski, "Dereliction of duty: Daniel Perez's vax reversal riles Ron DeSantis," Florida Politics, August 12, 2026.
- A.G. Gancarski, "Ron DeSantis rips Daniel Perez for obstructing his priorities," Florida Politics, May 14, 2026.
- A.G. Gancarski, "Another Special Session for medical freedom and AI? The ball is in Gov. DeSantis' court," Florida Politics, August 13, 2026.
- Michael Costeines, "Paul Renner Calls for Special Session on Medical Freedom Act, AI Bill of Rights," The Floridian, August 2026.
- "Florida House Speaker says no to Medical Freedom bill," CFPUBLIC, April 28, 2026.
- "After House again shelves Medical Freedom bill, supporters vow to continue fight," WUSF, April 29, 2026.
