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Following the country's worst measles epidemic in decades, New York has removed the religious exemption for vaccines for schoolchildren.
The Senate and the Assembly, led by Democrats, voted on Thursday to repeal the waiver, which allowed parents to invoke religious beliefs to prevent their child from receiving the necessary vaccinations for registration. school.
The law comes into effect immediately, but gives unvaccinated students up to 30 days after they enter a school to show that they have received the first dose of each vaccine required.
With the New York decision, similar exemptions are still allowed in 45 states, although many of the legislators have enacted their own legislation to eliminate the exemption.
The issue is fiercely contested, with an often moving debate around it, stressing that religious freedom is restricted and public health is threatened.
After the vote in the Assembly, many spectators in the gallery shouted "shame!
The debate intensified further with this year's measles outbreak, which, according to federal officials, has exceeded 1,000 diseases, the highest level in 27 years.
"I'm not aware of anything in the Torah, the Bible, the Koran or anything that suggests not being vaccinated," said Bronx Democrat, Jeffrey Dinowitz, the Assembly's sponsor of the bill .
"If you choose not to vaccinate your child, which may put other children at risk, then it is you who choose not to send your children to school."
Hundreds of parents of unvaccinated children gathered at the New York Capitol for the protest vote.
Stan Yung, a lawyer and father of Long Island, said that his orthodox Russian religious beliefs and his health concerns about vaccines would prevent him from vaccinating his three young children.
His family, he said, might consider leaving the state.
"People have come to this country to get away from this sort of thing," Yung said before Thursday's vote.
Proponents of the bill argue that religious beliefs about vaccines should not take precedence over scientific evidence of their effectiveness, noting that the US Supreme Court ruled in 1905 that states have the right to enforce immunization laws.
During the badembly debate, supporters spoke of past scourges that have been defeated in the United States through vaccines.
"I'm old enough to have been present when polio was a real threat," said Deborah Glick, woman of the badembly, from D-Manhattan.
"I believe in science …. Your personal opinions, which may be based on the science of junk food, do not outweigh the greater good.
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