National Health Freedom Action
2024 Year in Review
NHFA envisions an America where all people can access the practitioners and products, they need on their healing journey and are free to make their own health decisions for themselves and their families.
2024 was a transformative year for National Health Freedom Action (NHFA), marked by an ever-increasing number of opportunities to help citizens protect health freedom nationwide. NHFA provided critical support to growing grassroots movements, advocated for legislative change, and educated the public on the importance of bodily autonomy and access to alternative health practices.
Regarding NHFA’s Right to Refuse Project, and its Safe Harbor Project, NHFA attorneys were kept busy assisting local groups in MA, VT, CA, IN, and MD working on Right to Refuse legislation that protects bodily autonomy and genetic integrity.
They also responded to requests and supported efforts in numerous states towards passing Safe Harbor Practitioner Exemption Bills that would protect the rights of complementary and alternative health care practitioners to practice and remain accessible to consumers. That work included MA, CT, FL, IN, OK, and OR. In Florida, NHFA helped successfully oppose a restrictive naturopathic physician bill that would have been detrimental to Safe Harbor protections for traditional naturopaths and other complementary health care practitioners.
On the landscape of NHFA’s work to protect access to homeopathic remedies, NHFA attorneys Diane Miller and Petra Brokken are working to share their proposed draft bill language for changes to homeopathic federal law with interested parties including sharing their draft bills with federal Representative and members of Congress. They are looking forward to continuing their efforts in 2025.
This year we refined and updated NHFA’s Expanded Practice Act Model Bill Draft. The newly updated model bill is entitled Expanded Care Practice Act 2025 For Licensed Health Care Occupations. Expanded practices in the bill draft are defined as “health care and healing methods, modalities, treatments, procedures, or protocols that have not been generally adopted by a profession, or that are not generally considered to be within the prevailing standards of care of a profession”. The new law would allow licensed medical professionals to use expanded practices. The Act has three key principles: the treatment cannot pose a greater risk of harm when compared to a conventional treatment; the services must be provided with reasonable skill and safety; and patients are to receive expanded disclosures as to the approach being used, the practitioner’s training, and informed consent.
Since 2020, NHFA attorneys have researched and tracked thousands of Right to Refuse bills across the nation. Forty-nine states have filed over 1,380 bills explicitly protecting bodily autonomy. Of these, 29 states have passed a total of 83 new laws that protect bodily autonomy in some way.
Eight of these new laws were passed in 2024, and we expect this trend to continue and expand in 2025! Already, new Right to Refuse bills for the next session are starting to pour in.
However, many states have yet to pass protective laws. In these states, coercive medical mandates persist, and access to employment or education is still contingent on receiving particular vaccines. Our work to guide state groups in advocating for laws that protect health freedom remains urgent.
Educational outreach remains central to NHFA’s mission. Together with our sister organization, National Health Freedom Coalition (NHFC), NHFA gave numerous presentations in 2024:
Steven O’Connor and Leo Cashman participated in radio interviews with Robert Scott Bell on The Robert Scott Bell Show.
Julie Booras appeared on CHD.TV, The Robert Scott Bell Show, and the Hippocrates Wellness Podcast.
Petra Brokken was featured on The Freedom Hub’s Health Biz & Politics Show.
Diane Miller was featured on Health Freedom Radio.
NHFA also delivered presentations at virtual and in-person events nationwide, helping people understand how laws impact their freedoms and how they can become active in driving policy changes.
Homeopathic Remedies and the Law – Diane Miller JD, NHFC/NHFA Law and Public Policy Advisor.
Attorney Steven O’Connor of NHFA has been actively supporting state groups working on Right to Refuse legislation through a series of impactful presentations and resources.
• Laws, legislation, and litigation regarding minor consent to vaccination across the United States
• Fluoride ethics, legislation, and litigation
• Overview of new bills relevant to Right to Refuse efforts
• Religious exemptions to K-12 vaccines
• WHO Pandemic Agreement and amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR)
• New federal case law impacting Right to Refuse advocacy
• Genetic privacy and integrity laws
• Recent jury verdicts related to Right to Refuse issues
13th Annual Florida Herbal Conference – Winter Park, FL – March 2024 – Nate Gorman represented NHFA.
New Life Expo – Deerfield, FL – March 2024 – Nate Gorman represented NHFA.
2024 Joint American Homeopathic Conference – Reston, VA – April 2024 – Petra Brokken and Julie Booras represented NHFA.
2024 Trinity Health Freedom Expo – Indianapolis, IN – October 2024 – Attorney Steven O’Connor participated in the Health Freedom Panel with Robert Scott Bell, Jonathan Emord, and Leah Wilson.
2024 Global Health Freedom Summit – Alexandria, MN – September 2024 – Board member Jeanne Handke and attorney Petra Brokken represented NHFA and NHFC.
Holistic Professionals of Color Conference (HPOC) – Oklahoma City, OK – September 2024 – Attorney Steven O’Connor gave a presentation on Safe Harbor Practitioner Exemption, Expanded Practice, and Right to Refuse legislation.
2024 MHA Annual Conference, Northwest Academy of Homeopathy – Edina, MN – November 2024 – Presentations were given by NHFA founders Jerri Johnson, Diane Miller and Leo Cashman.
⇒ Jerri spoke about the history of the health freedom movement in Minnesota as it developed in the mid-1990s.
⇒ Diane presented on the legal and regulatory issues for homeopathy in America.
⇒ Leo spoke on breakthroughs of dental amalgam mercury being currently banned in almost all of Europe and on a federal district court judge’s verdict finding that water fluoridation presents an “unreasonable risk of harm” to the brains and nervous systems of children in America.
17th Annual Natural Health Expo – Marlborough, MA – November 2024 – Julie Booras gave a presentation titled Protecting the Future of Health Freedom.