Bill to Tighten Religious Exemptions on Vaccines Goes to Senate

A bill that would require stricter guidelines for New Jersey families to use religious exemptions for vaccinations has been approved by a senate committee and is now up for consideration from the full Senate.

On Monday, by a 5-2 vote, the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee approved S1147, a bill introduced on Jan. 30 that includes stricter guidelines and reasons for parents to use the religious exemption from vaccines for their children in New Jersey.

The bill is sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-37), and Senator Joseph Vitale (D-19). The bill came just a few weeks after more than 100 people contracted the measles virus while visiting Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

Senators Vitale, Fred Madden, Richard Codey, Robert Gordon, and Jim Whelan all approved of the bill. Senators Ronald Rice and Dawn Marie Addiego voted no, with Senators Robert Singer and Diane Allen not voting.

Currently the religious exemption requires parents to write and sign a letter to school officials explaining their child does not receiving vaccinations because the medical treatment goes against their religious beliefs, whatever they may be.

Bill S1147 adds a few layers, including the need for notarization, and the “general philosophical or moral objection to the vaccination is not sufficient for an exemption on religious grounds.”

The bill adds the “exemption on religious grounds may be suspended by the Commissioner of Health during the existence of an emergency as determined by the commissioner.”

Additional religious information would also be required under the bill, including the following:

• an explanation of the nature of the person’s religious tenet or practice that is implicated by the vaccination and how administration of the vaccine would violate, contradict, or otherwise be inconsistent with that tenet or practice;
• information that indicates that the religious tenet or practice is consistently held by the person, which may include, but need not be limited to, expression of the person’s intent to decline any vaccination;
• a statement that the religious tenet or practice is not solely an expression of that person’s political, sociological, philosophical, or moral views, or concerns related to the safety or efficacy of the vaccination; and
• a statement that the person understands the risks and benefits of vaccination to the student and the public health and acknowledges that the student may be excluded from attendance at the student’s preschool, elementary or secondary school, or institution of higher education, as applicable, in the event of the occurrence of a communicable disease or condition or threat of a communicable disease or condition, which in the opinion of the Commissioner of Health requires such exclusion from attendance of unvaccinated students.

Bill S1147 can be viewed in its entirety here.

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.

The bill now moves on to the full senate for consideration.

Should religious exemptions for vaccines be stricter? Should there be restrictions on vaccine exemptions? Should exemptions be allowed? Tell us in the comments.