The Republican war on science is rapidly becoming a public health emergency

Republicans at the state level have introduced over 420 anti-science bills, endangering lives while advancing right-wing conspiracy theories

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There was a time when the biggest science controversies in America revolved around how to deal with science, not whether we should accept science itself. When the teaching of evolution was being targeted by Creationists and Intelligent Design advocates, for example, even they just wanted their myths taught alongside real science. When the George W. Bush administration was debating whether to fund scientists studying embryonic stem cells, even they didn’t say the research itself was the problem. They acknowledged that the research was important. Those fights were heated, but they at least took place within a shared reality.

How quaint. These days, we’re not debating the edges of scientific ethics or curriculum choices. We’re watching a full-scale assault on science itself. The current Republican administration isn’t just undermining a few topics of study. It’s gutting the entire infrastructure that makes scientific research and education possible.

And when the federal government declares open season on expertise, state legislatures follow suit.

The result? A nationwide campaign to replace evidence with right-wing ideology.

A woman saying no to a vaccine for her child (image via Adobe Spark)

People like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. have been spreading misinformation about vaccines and food safety, and now politicians trying to get in the administration’s good graces are writing bills to parrot those lies.

It’s not a fringe phenomenon—it’s coordinated, widespread, and measurable.

According to new reporting from Michelle R. Smith and Laura Ungar of the Associated Press, “more than 420 anti-science bills” have been introduced in state legislatures across the country. Each one chips away at public health, public trust, and the very idea that facts should guide policy.

These bills would do things like ban fluoride in drinking water (which would lead to more cavities), make vaccines optional (which would be terrific news for measles and polio), and promote raw milk (which spreads foodborne illnesses).

What all these bills have in common is that they reject what experts in those areas would tell you is the healthier, safer, evidence-backed option. Instead, they’re fueled by conspiracy theories spread by prominent conservatives who don’t give a shit what scientists say and believe they’re more knowledgeable on these topics than the people who have been studying them their entire careers.

And while introducing a bill could just be symbolic, these pieces of legislation are meant to be taken seriously. The AP says “around 30 bills have been enacted or adopted in 12 states.” It’s possible many more could follow in the coming months.

In its analysis of legislation, AP focused on these three public health policies, which have clear medical evidence behind them and are targets of the Make America Healthy Again movement. AP searched 2025 legislation in all 50 states, analyzing more than 1,000 bills collected by the National Conference of State Legislatures and the bill-tracking software Plural for whether they undermined science-based protections for human health.

Anti-vaccine bills – 350 of them – were by far the most common. They come at the issue from various angles: barring discrimination against unvaccinated people, creating the criminal offense of vaccine harm, requiring blood banks to test for evidence of vaccinations and instituting a 48-hour vaccine waiting period.

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AP found more than 70 bills that would roll back access to fluoride or make it easier to sell or consume raw milk products. Many fluoride bills would prohibit its addition to water systems outright. One in Pennsylvania was dubbed the “Fluoride Choice Act” by its sponsor, who said individuals would be empowered “to make informed health decisions” and could get fluoride supplements or topical treatments instead.

On raw milk, bills would allow for sales beyond farms in Arkansas, decriminalize its sale in Hawaii and let Oklahoma farms sell raw donkey milk.

When you see red states adopt similar kinds of legislation to put the Ten Commandments in public schools, it’s part of a right-wing trend. But this is arguably worse because these bills are part of a deliberate campaign to dismantle the very concept of truth in public life. There’s no body count high enough to turn conservatives away from these self-inflicted wounds.

That’s partly because Republicans are so convinced they’re experts in everything. Just consider the case of Indiana Republican Rep. Bruce Borders, who sponsored two pieces of bullshit anti-vax legislation:

Borders, who owns an insurance company and works as an Elvis impersonator, said he’s driven by concern about his grandson, who he believes developed autism after getting vaccinated – though there’s no credible scientific evidence that’s possible.

He said these bills aren’t anti-science and that he respects doctors but believes some medical questions deserve more scrutiny.

“I’ve done tons of research on this issue because of my grandson,” Borders said. “I would say that my study on these issues would equal that of many people in the medical field.”

He thinks his googling is on par with scientists who have spent decades studying vaccinations. At that point, the problem isn’t even a disagreement on the efficacy of vaccines. The problem is that Borders doesn’t know what “research” is.

Republicans are turning science into a bogeyman because evidence is the enemy of their agenda. Every time they convince voters to distrust scientists, they make it easier to sell fear, to silence dissent, and to profit off ignorance. It’s easy to make people feel empowered by telling them that they—not doctors—should decide if or when to get vaccinated, and it’s easy to scare them by pretending there’s a link between vaccinations and autism (there isn’t). Or that raw milk is more beneficial because there are no chemicals involved. Or that a word they can’t spell shouldn’t be in your water because it’s somehow tainting it.

All of this endangers their health. And maybe that would be acceptable if the damage was limited to the people making bad decisions, but the nature of public health is that the irresponsible actions of a handful of right-wing zealots threaten all of our lives.

That’s why the rest of us—the ones who know what we’re talking about—can’t afford to shrug this off. We’re in a country where the most ignorant people are shaping policies that affect everyone. To an extent, that was also true during COVID, but even then, the Trump administration got vaccines developed and the Biden administration made sure everyone could get them. If COVID happened today, we’d be even more screwed given the backlash to vaccines, the distrust of government, and the incompetence of those in leadership positions. Which means more people would die.

Voting Republicans out is one step in reversing this, but it’s not enough, because a lot of the damage the GOP is doing can’t be undone. That’s the point. That’s why they’re doing it. Some policies can be overwritten, but distrust in science takes generations to overcome. People who study public health already know that, but we’re no longer being led by people who are well-versed in history or science. And the entire GOP party apparatus is complicit in elevating those voices.

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