NY Ends Religious Exemption To Measles Vaccine Amid Outbreak

NEW YORK — New York joined a handful of states Thursday in ending religious exemptions to vaccine requirements for schoolchildren as officials grapple with a massive measles outbreak.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill that repeals all non-medical exemptions to the state's requirement that children be vaccinated against measles and other diseases in order to attend school.

The new law, which took effect immediately, is the latest effort to beat back what state officials call New York's worst measles outbreak in more than a quarter-century. As of Tuesday, New York City's Department of Health had counted 588 cases of the virus since the outbreak began in October.

"While I understand and respect freedom of religion, our first job is to protect the public health and by signing this measure into law, we will help prevent further transmissions and stop this outbreak right in its tracks," Cuomo, a Democrat, said in a statement Thursday evening.

The new law puts New York among a small number of states, including California, Mississppi and West Virginia, that do not allow parents to opt their children out of vaccines for religious reasons. The vast majority of states offer exemptions to vaccination requirements based on religious or personal beliefs.

State lawmakers worried that skeptics of vaccines were using New York's religious exemption as a loophole to avoid immunizing their kids as measles roiled communities in Brooklyn and Rockland County.

Allowing kids to go unvaccinated put other children at risk, especially those with compromised immune systems, advocates of the bill argued.

"We’re putting science ahead of misinformation about vaccines and standing up for the rights of immunocompromised children and adults, pregnant women and infants who can’t be vaccinated through no fault of their own," state Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Manhattan Democrat who sponsored the bill, said in a statement.

Cuomo enacted the measure swiftly after the state Legislature passed it on Thursday over reportedly raucous protests from anti-vaccine activists, who have called it an attack on parents' autonomy. One woman called state Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz, a sponsor of the bill, "a piece of trash" after a committee vote, Politico New York reported.

The bill got through the Assembly Health Committee by just a two-vote margin before clearing the full chamber 84-61, then passing the state Senate with a 36-26 vote. One Brooklyn lawmaker reportedly described his vote against it as one of the hardest in his career.

"I know the majority of the studies and the majority of the polls say we should vote 'yes,' but I think there is a risk with this," Assembly Member Charles Barron said, according to Politico.