New York is moving closer to eliminating a religious exemption to vaccine requirements in the face of the nation’s worst measles outbreak in decades.
The Democrat-led Assembly voted Thursday to repeal the exemption, which allows parents of children to cite their religious beliefs to opt a child out of the vaccines required for enrollment in a public or private school.
The Senate is expected to pass the bill later in the day. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has said he will sign the measure and could act on the legislation as soon as Thursday night.
Similar exemptions are allowed in 46 states, though lawmakers in several of them are also considering the elimination of the waiver.
“We are facing an unprecedented public health crisis,” said Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan and the sponsor of the legislation in the Senate. “The atrocious peddlers of junk science and fraudulent medicine who we know as anti-vaxxers have spent years sowing unwarranted doubt and fear, but it is time for legislators to confront them head on.”
New York State Assembly Member Simcha Eichenstein said believes in vaccinating children, but voted against legislation that would repeal all non-medical exemptions from vaccination requirements for children.
While being at the forefront of urging community members to vaccinate during the recent measles outbreak, Eichenstein raised first amendment concerns with legislating when one’s religious beliefs apply, despite him making clear there is no religious restriction on vaccinating.
“We are here debating something that is beyond the scope of a legislature. Because in America, we have a guarantee of religious freedom that surpasses any other nation on this planet. It is dangerous for a legislative body to pick and choose when New Yorkers have their First Amendment Rights and when they don’t, because in the United States of America, we do not legislate religious beliefs,” said Eichenstein.
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Such a sad day in history….
They tried to limit Jewish studies hours, and next they’ll be after brissim…here in America…the land of the “free” ????
Land of the free doesn’t mean that you are free to murder your children, let alone your neighbors children רחמנה ליצלן
You mean the pharmaceutical companies and the CDC?
Slippery slope for religious rights.
It always starts with Jews against Jews and then leads to worse.
May Hashem protects us here in America.
It’s actually good. CA has same rules. Vaccination is not about religious differences, it’s about YOUR CHILD HEALTH and all of us as well. The only right vaccine exemption is only health condition of your child, proved by the doctor! I’m scary to be around not vaccinated toddlers when your are pregnant woman or have infants that can’t be vaccinated because are to young. Measles came back for sure not because of Jews, it came from the third countries to Israel and than here, but you chose to take a huge risks and put all in danger, your minors and… Read more »
So I guess your ok with your daughters being injected with HPV. Which does not apply to a FRUM community. With this law ALL vaccines are mandated. No one is saying not to get the important ones. Our community does not have an HPV problem because of our lifestyle. NOW ALL OUR GIRLS WILL BE GETTING THIS SHOT.
Not to mention they keep adding to the schedule 80 doses before they get to school!
Hpv causes cancer. Nothing about lifestyle.
Frum has nothing to do with HPV. HPV is a virus. In the clinic I worked at, we treated people from all walks of life with it. You would be aghast at the frum people (male and female) who were treated. For most, it was treating the issue and trying to prevent further outbreaks…..for some, cancer was part of the equation. Even one death due to the virus is too many. Oh, by the way…..these patients were adult – and claimed to be FFB and couldn’t figure out how or why they got it. Sad but true.
Why should I put my children’s life in danger for the life of your children??? If you choose to vaccinate be my guest. But I choose not to vaccinate my children to protect them from adjuvants in vaccines that are neurotoxic, immunotoxic and prooxidant (cancer). Ask your doctor for the inserts and you will be aghast what goes into these vaccines.
This is dangerous nonsense. Nothing that you mention is in vaccines. The inserts for vaccines are no more scary than what is required for any other medication, and even electrical equipment in certain states like California.
Please get educated and stop spreading FUD.
A group of doctors in California fighting this physicansforinformedconsent.org
fine but make it about medicine, not making up anything you want and calling it religion
I hope everyone will be happy now that are precious girls will be getting the dreaded HPV vaccine. Now with this new order.
HPV vaccine is not one of the “mandatory” ones, rather one of the “recommended” ones.
Your veiled anti-vax mental bias shines right through.
My husband was a FRUM doctor/immunologist. Getting Gardasil does NOT cause HPV.I agree that (IYH) our own daughters are safe from this, we still gave it to our girls because it would have given the incorrect impression to our community. I also fail to understand how this could be confused with freedom of religion. I have searched everywhere to find the sefer ‘hilchus immunisation’ everywhere in my husband’s collection and failed to see it. This has nothing to do with religious freedom at all. It is called ‘Parental Choice’ You have CHOSEN under the guise of frumkite not to immunise.
The Torah’s says to Guard your health. Parents who believe that vaccines have toxic adjuvants have every right not to vaccinate their children for fear of life-time injuries and possibly death, r’l. And, yes, it is assur to vaccinate children if there is a fear of injury.
You could for whatever reason not want to get vaccinated but that has nothing to do with yiddishkeit
The Torah decrees, “Venishmartem meod lenafshoteichem, Be very careful about your lives,” (Devarim 4:15). We are obligated to preserve our health. This includes vaccines that has injured and killed thousands of people worldwide. Look it up.
Not getting the vaccine is the exact opposite of guarding your health. The frum community has a 96% vaccine rate. Please, show me pictures of all the frum babies who died because of the shot. Do you even know of a personal aquaintence whose baby died as a direct result of a vaccine? Or are they all hearsay. Look around you at all the noninjured babies who got the vaccine. All they walked away with was immunity to whatever disease the vaccine was for, there’s no abundance of dead babies following vaccines like antivaxxers would have you think.
He should know better. There should not be religious exemptions because there is no basis in religion not to vaccinate, just as there no religious basis not to take medication.
And bona fide members of those religions should be exempt, so long as there aren’t too many of them.
If you allow some religions to be exempt, you are forced to allow others to be exempt.
The government’s number one responsibility is to ensure the safety of its citizens. When people willingly don’t vaccinate, they are harming the entire country. Educate yourselves on herd immunity. Those who can’t get vaccinated for medical reasons have an even bigger reason to want other people to vaccinate, inorder to protect themselves.
There’s a larger issue at work here.
Those religions that genuinely do have a problem with it should retain their exemptions. But it should be policed more carefully, just like the religious exemptions from paying social security taxes (and receiving benefits). You can’t just declare that your have a religious objection to participating in the social security system, you have to prove to the IRS that you are a member of a small number of listed religions that they have verified have such objections. The same should be true for vaccinations. And of course if you have a letter from a non-Jewish minister that you are a… Read more »
There is no first amendment right to exemption from a generally applicable law. So Eichenstein is simply displaying his ignorance of the constitution. Legislatures generally choose to provide such exemptions, and they’re allowed to, but they don’t have to.
If you have real medical concerns then you should be able to get a medical exemption from a real doctor. These people know they can’t so they are using our Torah just as a loophole instead of following what the Torah says
Which schools in Crown Heights accept unvaccinated children?
All schools until now we’re accepting exemptions….it’s been the law….forever!! The 0.9% of unvaccinated children in our schools is not what brought in the outbreak! Do your research!!
It’s the law!
Head start/upk /etc Did not accept not vaccinated in any CH school and actually did a mandatory for the flu shot as by health department too, so at least these kids are fully vaccinated. Schools are more strict now ( at least I hope so). It’s not a joke with resent cases in CH, if not vaccinate we will join Willy in their spikes of measles .
NYSED (remember MaryEllen Elia?) actually went after Shulamis HS for NOT accepting unvaxxed students
The reason this is on the table is because the frum community has abused the privilege. It has absolutely nothing to do with religious freedom. Anti-vaxers have used this as an excuse to avoid vaccinations to the extent that they are putting MY GRANDCHILD’S LIFE AT RISK due to genuine medical issues. And let’s not forget the massive chilul Hashem caused when a couple decided to sue a Yeshiva who refused to admit their unvaxed child. That read so well in the papers, blogs etc. It really helped “the cause”, especially when the lawsuit was dropped. Your selfish agenda has… Read more »
Their lawsuit was never dropped… instead of spreading your own thoughts go educate yourself… Medical exemptions, religious exemptions and philosophical exemptions have been around for decades… The fact that you didn’t know that has nothing to do with this… The fact that a measles outbreak happened at the same time as that lawsuit has nothing to do with them The fact that there are 1 in 1000 vaccine injuries should bother you The fact that you don’t know about vaccine court and the 4billion dollars they’ve paid out so far is appalling!!! And what deaths are you talking about because… Read more »
The more the democratic government has been going after the frum community,the more In thinking that the anti vaxxes may be correct. Now this liberal democratic city council is making the selling of fur in New York City illegal. There are 132 furrier businesses in manhattan that will have to close up. Streimels will also become illegal to sell. The two frum politicians are trying to stop it but the vast majority are flaming liberals and their hatred of Torah Jews is epic. They have banned paper and plastic bags,destroyed the real estate of all of New York State with… Read more »
And this has to do with exactly what. No one ever got sick from a shtrimel unless you were bitten by the mink. Oh wait. You would run to get a rabies shot. This is about keeping our kids safe and not going back when these diseases killed and harmed. I remember the polio epidemic bet you don’t.
Don’t vaccinate and keep your kids home. I think it’s child abuse but least my family and school safe
Perhaps if you stopped your hysterical, angry responses and got off your high horse long enough to GOOGLE (as you seemed to recommend!) you will see that here in Israel there have been deaths as a result of measles. But since you fanatics believe that attack is the best form of defense, you will continue to harangue and browbeat anyone who opposes you because you don’t have a scientific leg to stand on.
The government is not going after frum per se. It’s going after the areas all over the country that are most non compliant. Washington state has a problem that is being dealt with,and it’s not a Jewish thing. Unfortunately, too many people in certain areas of NY city chose to listen to garbage info and not vaccinate and to ignore the rulings not to let unvaccinated kids in Yeshiva. They are targeted because of noncompliance NOT because they are Jewish. If those people have been targeted, they have only themselves to blame
Real great – for measles…
But does anyone care that thousands of migrants are entering the country by Mexico, some with diseases chas’vhalom – diseases of different types of serious threats, to say the least. Measles. – which everyone before 1957 is supposed to have been exposed to and came down with and lived to tell the tale.
the anti-vaxxers caused an outbreak that sparked this whole removing the religous exemption issue. SO they have no one to blame but themselves- GO VACCINATE YOUR KIDS – ENOUGH ALREADY
This is just the beginning. The democrats will start trying to impose laws on frum schools about education, what they can teach, how they can teach etc. I vaccinate. but this is the communist reality
There is no epidemic. Yes some people got the measles and people should vaccinate. but there is so much dangerous things that the media doesn’t mention. Measles is a a disease in which you are sick for a week and then recover. so don’t panic
When was the last time you heard of someone dying from chicken-pox… but we cant let kids in schools if they are not vaccinated… people are so blind its all about the $$$