Challenging the 'acceptable option': Public health's advocacy for continued care in the case of pediatric vaccine refusal.

Background: In the United States, nearly half of pediatricians dismiss or refuse to accept families that withhold consent from the administration of childhood vaccines. Since 2016, the American Academy of Pediatrics has called patient dismissal in these cases "an acceptable option." Clinician dismissal and non-acceptance pose a problem to public health because they cluster under-vaccinated children in the practices that remain willing to treat such children, and they decrease access to routine care for children who cannot find practices willing to accept or retain them.