New Jersey’s Religious Exemption – Bad Bill S1759 Moves Forward!

Urge your Senator, VOTE NO on S1759

Who will decide what a bona fide religious belief is? What is the standard/yardstick?

This bill sacrifices religious freedom to compel more people to use vaccines. NJ vaccination rates exceed national levels.

Who asked for this bill? What’s wrong with the existing statute? What has changed since the NJ Health Department reaffirmed religious rights in 2008 and 2010, which clarified the guidelines for religious exemption? Why is this bill trying to change that?

Excessive Cost to parents/taxpayers – Notarizing, doctors counseling, administrative overhead. The costs unfairly burden those who are least able to afford it. It should not cost money and time to protect our religious rights.

It is inappropriate for medical doctors to counsel parents on the exercise of a religious belief. In effect, this bill will require medical practitioners to try to change an individual’s religious beliefs by giving medical advice. This is not religious freedom; it is promotion of official state speech.

Senator Weinberg claims this is in response to pertussis outbreaks, yet pertussis outbreaks have been mainly in the vaccinated population, and the CDC has acknowledged that the pertussis vaccine is ineffective.

S1759 is a dangerous undermining of the parental and religious rights of NJ Citizens.

specify their exact religious tenets in notarized, signed, and sworn format

include an explanation of the nature of the religious tenet or practice that is implicated by the “vaccination”

explain how administration of “the vaccine” would violate, contradict, or otherwise be inconsistent with that tenet or practice

affirm that the religious tenet is consistently held

obtain a signed statement annually from a physician or advanced practice nurse licensed in New Jersey proving that parents received vaccine counseling.