Written by: Sarah Johnson | May 1, 2018

This week we’ll take a look at New Jersey’s A3818, a bill clarifying statutory exemptions from mandatory immunizations for students. 

Legislation relating to mandatory vaccinations — where choice and public safety collide — has been a topic of national discussion increasing in volume over the last decade. For some general information on this issue, read this blog. New Jersey has been attempting to pass a bill similar to this one for the last six years, and with a new legislative freshly started, here it is again, introduced and committee. 

Here is a list of all of the different bills in New Jersey having to do with mandatory immunizations over the last seven years.

According to the current law in New Jersey, if a parent is seeking a religious exemption from the requirements for their children to be immunized, they are required to submit a signed letter stating “immunization interferes with the free exercise of the pupil’s religious rights.” A3818 would change the current requirements for exemption substantially.

First, it would require parents to submit documentation to the school explaining how the vaccination conflicts with “bona fide religious tenets or practices of the student.” There must also be a signed and notarized letter explaining how the religious convictions conflict with the vaccination. Second, the bill states that objections cannot be based “solely on political, sociological, philosophical or moral views, or concerns about the safety or efficacy of the vaccination.” Parents would also have to submit a signed statement from a doctor confirming the parents were counseled on the risks.

Sue Collins, co-founder for the New Jersey Alliance for Informed Choice in Vaccination, said the bill is vague, stating, “Who is deciding whether the people’s beliefs are valid but somebody else’s beliefs may not be?”

In 2012 the Senate passed a similar bill, but it never advanced beyond committee approval in the Assembly. In 2015, the bill stalled again. During this time, Meg Fisher, medical director for the Unterberg Children’s Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, said “We’re concerned that in New Jersey people are using the religious exemption as a philosophic or concern about safety exemption, not truly a religious exemption. We would like to tighten that up so people can’t just say it’s against my religion therefore I can’t immunize my child with one or another vaccines.”

This attempts to tackle this issue, individual liberty vs public safety, in a way that tries to protect both. Have they got the balance right?

 

 

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