NJ: Oppose Restriction of Religious Exemption to Vaccination – Calls Needed NOW – Attend Hearing December 12th

Attend S2173 Hearing on Thursday December 12th at 2:00 pm in Committee Room 4

by the National Vaccine Information Center

We wanted to alert you to some legislative activity threatening vaccine exemptions in New Jersey that requires immediate action. We are asking you to communicate your opposition to S2173 to your legislators right away Tuesday December 10th through the scheduled hearing on Thursday, December 12th.

S2173 is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019 at 2:00 PM in Committee Room 4, on the 1st Floor of the State House Annex in Trenton. Please attend and testify against this bill if you are able.

S2173 places burdensome, discriminatory and intrusive barriers on the exercise of a religious exemption. It requires a parent or guardian to justify their religious exemption by providing notarized sworn written documentation. This includes but isn’t limited to an explanation of the nature of the person’s religious tenet or practice that is implicated by the vaccination, how the administration of the vaccine would violate, contradict or be inconsistent with that tenet or practice, and information that indicates that the religious tenet or practice is consistently held by the person.

Also, the bill is at strong risk for being further amended to totally eliminate the religious exemption during the hearing on 12/12/2019 in a similar way the companion bill A3818 was already amended to eliminate the religious exemption.

In order for a bill to pass the legislature in New Jersey, it has to pass both houses before it is sent to the governor. A3818 still has to have a full vote by the Assembly and the next possible date for that vote would be Dec. 16, 2019. Calls are needed to oppose companion A3818 as well.

The NJ Legislative Session is a two year session that is scheduled to end on 1/7/2020. It is critical that S2173 and A3818 are stopped in this home stretch.

ACTION NEEDED:

1. Call Members of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee and ask them to oppose S2173 which places burdensome and intrusive religious belief documentation requirements on the exercise of a religious exemption. Also ask them to oppose any amendments that would further restrict or eliminate vaccine exemptions. Explain how being required to justify your religion is discriminatory and could result in punitive religious inquisitions and challenges by school and health officials. Personalize your comments by sharing how maintaining unrestricted religious exemptions are important to your family.

   • Chair Joseph F. Vitale, 732-855-7441
   • Vice Chair Fred H. Madden, 856-232-6700
   • Anthony M. Bucco, 973-927-2526
   • Richard J. Codey, 973-535-5017
   • Kristin M. Corrado, 973-237-1360
   • Vin Gopal, 732-695-3371, 732-333-0166
   • James W. Holzapfel, 732-840-9028
   • Joseph A. Lagana, 201-576-9199
   • Ronald L. Rice, 973-371-5665
   • Robert W. Singer, 732-987-5669
2. Call and email your New Jersey Senator and ask him/her to VOTE NO on S2173. If you do not know who your state legislators are, register/login to the NVIC Advocacy Portal at http://NVICAdvocacy.org. Click on the STATE TEAMS tab and select your state. Their names are displayed on the right side of the page and you can click on their name for contact information. You can also search here – https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/legsearch.asp
3. Call and email your New Jersey Assembly Member and ask him/her to VOTE NO on A3818 which removes the religious exemption before 12/16/2019 which is the next date the full Assembly could vote.
4. Attend the hearing for S2173 in the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019 at 2:00 PM in Committee Room 4, on the 1st Floor of the State House Annex in Trenton. (Directions and parking information)
5. Please forward legislative responses to our NVIC Advocacy NJ state director Sue at NJDirector14@NVICAdvocacy.org.
6. Login to the NVIC Advocacy Portal OFTEN to check for updates. We review bills and make updates daily. Bills can change many times over the legislative process and your timely visits, calls, and emails directed at the correct legislators are critical to this process.
7. Please forward this email to family and friends and ask them to register for the NVIC Advocacy Portal at http://NVICAdvocacy.org and share their concerns with their legislators as well. You can also find this alert on the National Vaccine Information Center Facebook Page in the “NOTES” section to share.

NVIC’s Opposition Statement to S2173

Dear Honorable Members of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee,

The non-profit National Vaccine Information Center, founded in 1982 to prevent injuries and deaths through public education and protect the informed consent ethic, urges you to OPPOSE S2173.

This bill severely and unreasonably restricts the religious exemption to vaccine mandates in New Jersey by placing burdensome and intrusive religious belief documentation requirements on the exercise of a religious exemption. Requiring parents to justify their religion is discriminatory and could result in punitive religious inquisitions and inappropriate religious challenges by school and health officials.

Also, we urge you to reject any amendments to further restrict or eliminate vaccine exemptions.

Vaccination rates for New Jersey school children are already high and religious exemption numbers are already low. Kindergarten vaccination rates in New Jersey for MMR, DTaP, Varicella, Hep B, and Polio are all > 95% according to the Centers for Disease Control. Out of a total of 109,161 kindergarten students, there are only 2,510 religious exemptions.

Exemption rates are being misrepresented. An expanded bloated vaccine schedule is not accounted for in claims of rising of exemption numbers. Having an exemption doesn’t mean unvaccinated. Children today receive 69 doses of vaccines for 16 different viral and bacterial illnesses which more than doubles the government childhood schedule of 34 doses of 11 different vaccines in the year 2000. A vaccine exemption is filed regardless of whether the exemption is filed for one dose or all doses. 35 doses and 5 more unique vaccines have been added to the schedule in the last 19 years leading to more possibilities for an exemption. Don’t be fooled by those who incorrectly assume a student with an exemption is unvaccinated as most students with exemptions are partially vaccinated.

Personal religious beliefs are included in rights granted by the U.S. Constitution. There have been unsubstantiated claims that parents in New Jersey are misusing religious exemptions. Those who are asserting this think that one has to belong to a recognized or organized religion to have constitutionally protected religious beliefs. This is not true. Personally held sincere religious beliefs are protected as well. Many families who experience trauma turn to closer to religion. Vaccine reactions and deaths are traumatic.

Vaccine exemptions need to be expanded and preserved for many vaccines in the future. America’s biopharmaceutical research companies are developing more than 260 vaccines. The U.S. Vaccine Market alone was $36.45 billion in 2018, and is expected to reach $50.42 billion by 2023. This is a very powerful industry with lots of resources to lobby and influence policy to remove parental rights to be able to delay or decline a vaccine. The industry benefits financially from forced use.

Vaccines cause injuries and deaths for some, and manufactures and doctors have no liability. The United States Government has paid out more than $4 billion dollars to vaccine victims through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). The law passed by Congress in 1986 establishing the VICP along with the 2011 Supreme Court Decision BRUESEWITZ ET AL. v. WYETH LLC, FKA WYETH, INC., ET AL shield vaccine manufacturers and the doctors who administer vaccines from liability for vaccine injuries and deaths. As of July 1, 2019, there have been 1,274 claims filed in the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) for injuries and deaths following measles vaccination, for 82 deaths and 1,192 serious injuries.

Public health emergency provisions to suspend religious exemptions already exist where unvaccinated students can be excluded from school in the case of an emergency declared by the commissioner, so it is completely unnecessary and cruel to restrict or remove religious exemptions. (N.J. Stat. § 26:1A-9.1.)

Dawn Richardson, Director of Advocacy
National Vaccine Information Center
http://NVIC.org and http://NVICAdvocacy.org

Sincerely,

NVIC Advocacy Team
National Vaccine Information Center
http://NVIC.org and http://NVICAdvocacy.org
https://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Members/ContactUs.aspx