LIVE VIDEO: New Jersey Votes to Eliminate Religious Exemption to Vaccination
Updated
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New Jersey bill S2173/A3818 is scheduled for a vote today [Monday] according to New Jersey’s legislative calendar sometime during the 12:00 senate chamber session.
Yesterday, NJ.com reported “On the eve of one of the most dramatic votes in recent Statehouse history, state Senate leaders struggled again to find enough support…Democrats who control the 40-member Senate do not have 21 votes needed to pass the bill, according to legislative sources who spoke on condition of anonymity…”
“It’s still a little uncertain,” Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen, one of the bill’s sponsors, said late Sunday.
It was only Thursday that Senate Democrats had secured the pivotal 21st vote by agreeing to a compromise with Republican state Sen. Declan O’Scanlon of Monmouth County. O’scanlon was one of the holdouts in December when the bill’s vote was shelved in the face of massive protests before the holiday.
The new compromise allows a religious exemption option for private schools students yet removes the option for students in public school settings. O’Scanlon told Patch.com “I’m just trying to find options for folks. Look, other deals would have been done to get this bill passed. I concede this was not a perfect option.“
He went on to suggest, “there is nothing to stop the anti-vax community from getting together and creating their own daycares or schools of some kind.” Even at this late stage in the legislative process, O’Scanlon’s disconnect was evident as he choose to use the discriminatory ‘anti-vax’ slur to describe the diverse cross-section of his constituency opposing the bill.
In addition to the thousands who have continued to appear outside New Jersey’s State Capitol, vocal opposition has come from New Jersey State Assemblyman Jamal Holley. Holley took to Twitter with a series of messages: