New Jersey allows both religious and medical exemptions from vaccinations. State lawmakers are considering legislation to tighten restrictions on religious exemptions.
Current state law reads: "A written statement should be submitted by the student, or the student's parent or guardian if the student is a minor, stating that immunization interferes with the free exercise of the pupil's religious rights."
In March, a Senate committee passed stronger restrictions on those families seeking religious exemption,
according to NJ Advance Media. Some families described the proposed tightening as religious persecution. It stalled in the full Senate in May.
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According to the proposed Senate legislation, a parent seeking a religious exemption must have a notarized letter explaining "the nature of the person's religious tenet or practice that is implicated by the vaccination and how the administration of the vaccine would violate, contradict or otherwise be inconsistent with that tenet or practice."
The letter must also show that such a belief "is consistently held by the person," and more than "an expression of that person's political, sociological, philosophical or moral views, or concerns related to the safety of efficacy of the vaccination."
In addition to the statement, those parents would also have to get a state doctor to sign off that they had been counseled about both benefit and risk of such shots, NJ Advance Media noted.
About 1.7 percent of New Jersey students were granted religious exemptions in 2014,
Inside Jersey magazine reported. About 0.3 percent were exempt for medical reasons.
Vaccination exemptions vary from state to state, with all states granting exemptions for medical reasons,
according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Almost all states grant religious exemptions, and 20 include philosophical exemptions.
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