NJ Parents Make Final Push To Save Religious Vaccine Exemptions

Update Monday, Dec. 16: The bill passed the Assembly, but failed to get enough votes to be voted on in the state Senate. The Senate did not vote on it. This legislative session does not end until mid January, so the New Jersey Senate will likely revisit the bill in January 2020.

"This bill is vital for the health and safety of the residents of New Jersey, especially our children and we look forward to bringing the bill up for a vote in the near future," said Vitale and Weinberg in a statement Monday night after they failed to get enough votes to pass one of strictest vaccine laws in the U.S.

"We won’t give up on our efforts to do what we can to see that vaccines are used as broadly as needed," the two Democratic senators added.

Hundreds of parents in New Jersey are protesting what they say is an invasion of their civil rights and liberties — a proposal by the New Jersey state Senate to eliminate religious or "personal beliefs" as a valid exemption to vaccines.

After measles outbreaks in Rockland County and Brooklyn, New York state removed the religious exemptions to vaccines last year. New Jersey was quick to follow in New York's footsteps, when Sen. Joseph Vitale, a Democrat from Middlesex County, and Sen. Loretta Weinberg, a Democrat from Bergen County, introduced the bill to void religious exemptions earlier this year.

At 2 p.m. on Thursday, there will be a final public hearing on Vitale's bill, and it is the last chance for the public to testify on the bill before it goes to the full legislature for a yay or nay vote. That full vote is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 16.

If the bill passes, parents can still choose to not vaccinate their children, but the kids will not be allowed to attend New Jersey public schools. Currently, parents can claim a religious or personal exemption to having their child vaccinated, and the child can still attend public school.

If the bill passes, the current 14,000 unvaccinated children in New Jersey public schools will either have to get fully vaccinated, which includes dozens of shots, or leave the public school system, according to Northjersey.com.

“Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation and hysteria swirling around this legislation,” said Weinberg, D-Bergen. “But the bottom line is the constitution tasks us with promoting the general welfare and therefore, we cannot let unsubstantiated fears endanger the public, and especially not our classrooms. There is no exemption for drunk driving or wearing a seat belt, there should not be an exemption from a patently safe vaccine that, if not taken, puts the health and wellbeing of our children at risk.”

Vitale's bill gained support after there were about a dozen measles outbreaks in Ocean County in the first half of 2019. As the Ocean County Patch reported, the measles cases nearly all occurred at synagogues used by the Orthodox Jewish community in Lakewood. Many in the Orthodox Jewish community do not vaccinate their children. The measles was brought to Lakewood by a man who had been vaccinated against measles but contracted it anyway in the Ukraine (he hadn't built up enough immunity), and spread it when he returned to New Jersey.

Jennifer Cerezo, 35, who lives in Bergenfield, is one of the parents who is fighting the bill. While Cerezo said she could not be at the statehouse on Thursday, she said went to the Statehouse when Vitale's bill was first introduced, and has since been calling her local assemblyman and other elected officials to tell them she is against it.

"Whether you are pro-vax or anti-vax, the decision to vaccinate your child or not is your choice," she told Patch on Thursday. "This is taking away my Constitutional rights as an American, my right to follow my religion and do what I think is best for my child. Don't take away my rights as a parent."

Cerezo, whose husband is a police officer in New Jersey, said she is opposed to this bill for two reasons:

"First, I was raised Catholic. These vaccines are filled with aborted fetal cells," she said. "I am 100 percent against abortion, as all Catholics are. Had I known what was in these, I never would have put this in my body."

Varicella (chickenpox), rubella (the “R” in the MMR vaccine), hepatitis A, polio and the rabies vaccine are all made with the cells of two fetuses that were aborted in the 1960s, according to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). These embryo cells have continued to regenerate in a lab and are used to make millions of those vaccines today. Since those initial two aborted fetuses, no further sources of aborted fetal cells have been needed to make the vaccines, according to CHOP.

"I was never told to question what was in the vaccines," said Cerezo. "And when you ask your doctor what's in them, they look at you like you shouldn't even be asking these questions."

Secondly, Cerezo, a mother of two, had her son, now 9, vaccinated when he was a baby. She thinks the vaccine either caused his autism or triggered its onset, as he has a pre-existing genetic abnormality.

"I let my son have his first MMR vaccine, and he had a reaction to it right away," she said. "He developed a rash on all of his body, he had an almost 105-degree fever. I took him to the ER and they said, 'Oh, that's a normal reaction to the vaccine.' After that, I started to notice he lost some of his milestones — waving hello, things like that. And he began crying non-stop for hours; I couldn't comfort him."

At the age of 3, her son was diagnosed with autism.

There have been multiple studies, including by the CDC, that show vaccines do not cause autism. A respected autism advocacy group, Autism Speaks, affirmed the studies.

Cerezo said she's familiar with the research and thinks that none of the studies are conclusive.

"I think vaccines pulled the trigger to make him sick," she said.

After that, Cerezo said she and her husband decided not to vaccinate their daughter, now 7. Both children are enrolled in Bergenfield public schools.

"And she's one of the healthiest kids in her class. She never even gets a cold."

Vitale, D-Middlesex, said the bill is about keeping children healthy and classrooms safe

“We require vaccinations to protect those who, medically, cannot be vaccinated," he said. "It has been troubling to watch the numbers of non-vaccinated youth rise in recent years. The greater number of people vaccinated, the better we are immune as a society. We allow false information and non-scientific claims keep us from keeping the public safe.”

Cerezo's biggest issue with Vitale's bill is she think it is government overreach.

"If this bill passes, I have to fully give up my religious beliefs and do something I do not believe in," she said. "Or I have to leave the public schools, and my son needs these services. And I'm a taxpayer for those public school services. I pay very high New Jersey taxes for those services."

"The fact is, the government is now trying to say: We don't care about your religious beliefs," she continued. "I can't even believe they are trying to take away our rights as parents. Next the state is going to come and tell us what medicines we are forced to give our child when they are sick.

"When my child gets sick, it's Mommy or Daddy who knows best how to make them better. It's not the state or the government that knows best. That's the biggest issue for us."

The number of parents who have opted out of getting their child vaccinated in New Jersey has skyrocketed in recent years: In the 2005-2006 academic year, there were 1,641 non-vaccinated students in New Jersey public schools, according to Department of Education data obtained by NJ.com.

By the 2018-19 academic year, that number exploded to 13,987 unvaccinated students, most of whose parents claimed a religious or personal exemption.

The rates of unvaccinated kids are significantly higher in counties such as Monmouth, Sussex and Hunterdon, according to NJ.com.

“I understand the passion to control what children eat, drink and put into their bodies. I get it as a parent. But there aren’t side effects for the vast majority of children, and the public health benefits significantly outweighs the risk, which is infinitesimal,” Vitale told NJ.com.