NJ Vaccination Religious Exemption Dear Family: On Thursday, January 31, NJ Bill A3818 was amended without notice by the full assembly to COMPLETELY REMOVE THE RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION to vaccinations from NJ law.  The amendment also seeks to change several public laws that have been in place to allow for religious exemption.  These changes were made without public notice or the ability for those it would affect to provide testimony and reach out to their elected officials. Legislators who voted had not even read the changes they were voting on.  Usually when amendments are voted on in full assembly they are done by voice vote (ya or nah) and it is to change minor things within a bill (addition or subtraction of a word, punctuation, etc). In this case the bill sponsor (Herb Conaway) deleted an entire section of the existing law. The bill sponsor is known for pulling things like this to circumvent the democratic process.  What this will mean for you and me? Parents (incl. myself) will not be able to opt out of ANY vaccines for their children. My children will be REMOVED from school. This applies to ALL SCHOOLS in NJ (public/private). Any vaccine that is added to the schedule will be mandated (flu shots, HPV, any fast tracked vaccines). But it will not stop there. They are coming for YOU next. The federal government will soon require that we (adults) be "up to date" on whatever they decide in order to renew our license, get a passport, get a job, get a loan, etc. (check out HealthyPeople.gov). These amendments are NOT law YET.  But your help is needed to stop it. Here is the A3818 bill/amendment:   https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2018/Bills/A4000/3818_R1.HTM https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2018/Bills/A4000/3818_S2.HTM  (keep in mind that anything in brackets […..] has been removed) CALL TO ACTION (I advise printing for reference) 1) Write to your 2 Assembly members:  Find their name/address here here: https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/districts/municipalities.asp Emails are "asm" (assemblyman) or "asw" (assemblywoman), the legislators last name, @njleg.org (ie: Assemblyman Tully (District 38) is ASMTULLY@njleg.org) When making calls, make sure they know you are a constituent. Ask to speak with the legislative aids. Leave messages if need be. Ask for a call back. We are looking to make "noise" about this bill. Get them looking into it and reading it and knowing there is great concern over it. Ask for clarification on the bill and why it was amended. Feel free to ask for a meeting to discuss.  2) Reach out to other family and friends to update them on this issue. 3) Reach out to people in your community and let them know what is going on. We need as many people regardless of stance on vaccines to help. This is a religious freedom and constitutional infringement not a debate on the science of vaccines. 4) SAVE THE DATE to be in Trenton – Monday February, 25th.  This is the next full Assembly Session. If its on the agenda we need as many people to show up as possible (bills can be posted no less than three days in advance). The focus of your conversations on this bill should be religious freedom/First Amendment rights. Let me know if you have questions. Thank you all.