Assembly Committee's OK On Religious Exemption Restrictions for Vaccines Draws Public's Ire

The New Jersey Assembly’s Health Committee approved a new bill by a 9-1 vote Monday that would make it harder for residents to use the religious exemption for children receiving vaccines.

Bill A-1931 is the companion bill to S-1147, the state senate’s similar proposed legislation that was approved by that body’s health committee on March 9.

The A-1931 bill is sponsored by Assemblyman Herb Conaway (D-07) and was introduced on Jan. 16.

The bill came just a few weeks after more than 100 people contracted the measles virus while visiting Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

See: Bill to Tighten Religious Exemptions on Vaccines Goes to Senate

During the hearing Monday, residents from around the state who opposed the bill made their voices heard to the committee, according to CBS Philly. In a video on the television station’s website (included below), residents make the case that their religious freedoms are being impeded, and that asking parents to “quantify or qualify the nature” of his or her relationship with God is unjust.

As of 2008, New Jersey’s religious exemption for vaccines required only that parents or guardians submit a signed letter to their child’s school stating immunizations were counter to their religious beliefs, whatever they may be.

Assembly bill 1931, much like Senate bill 1147, doesn’t look to eradicate the exemption, rather, add levels of justification.

The Assembly bill states:

• a written statement submitted to the elementary or secondary school or the institution of higher education, as applicable, by a licensed physician indicating that the vaccine is medically contraindicated for a specific period of time and the reasons for the medical contraindication, based upon valid medical reasons as determined by regulation of the Commissioner of Health and Senior Services, which is to exempt the student from the vaccination for the stated period of time; or
• a written statement submitted to the elementary or secondary school or the institution of higher education, as applicable, by the student, or the student’s parent or guardian if the student is a minor, explaining how the administration of the vaccine conflicts with the bona fide religious tenets or practices of the student, or the parent or guardian, as appropriate; except that: a general philosophical or moral objection to the vaccination is not sufficient for an exemption on religious grounds; and an exemption on religious grounds may be suspended by the Commissioner of Health and Senior Services during the existence of an emergency as determined by the commissioner.

New Jersey has approximately 9,000 students using the religious exemption from vaccines during the 2013-14 school year, according to the Associated Press. That figures accounts for approximately 2-percent of the total student body in the state.

Now that the bill has passed committee it will head to the full assembly for consideration.

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