As hundreds of chanting protestors filled the Statehouse halls and spilled into a courtyard outside, the state Senate abandoned an effort Monday night to pass a controversial bill that would eliminate a law that allowed 14,000 school children in New Jersey to skip their vaccines because of their family’s religious beliefs.

Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, said he was one vote short of passing the bill (A3818), which would allow only children with verified medical conditions to be exempt from vaccination required to attend schools in the state.

Sen. Joseph Lagana, D-Bergen, could be heard explaining to Vitale that he wouldn’t vote yes because it is “just too personal for me.”

Once Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, ended the session without taking up the bill, a huge and sustained cheer from the hundreds of parents who turned out to oppose the measure erupted from the gallery and hallway outside the Senate chambers in Trenton.

Opponents had staged one of the largest, longest, and loudest protests in Statehouse history, lawmakers remarked. And it came on an already busy day in which lawmakers in both houses of the state Legislature considered more than 100 pieces of legislation.

Vitale and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen, the measure’s sponsors, said they weren’t deterred by the raucous crowds, who for hours chanted “Kill the Bill!” and “In God We Trust!”

And Sweeney insisted that the Senate will attempt to vote on the bill again, possibly in the coming weeks.

“They can cheer all they want. This bill is going to get done. This is good public policy,” the Senate president said. “There is no science to back up what they these people are saying.”

The Senate has two voting sessions scheduled in January before the two-year legislative session ends Jan. 13. If it doesn’t pass by then, the legislative hearing process would have to start over.

The bill passed the state Assembly by a 45-24 vote with seven abstentions earlier Monday. From the gallery seating upstairs, the audience erupted: “We will not comply!”

As the Senate began debating the bill later in the afternoon, the sound of the protestors in the hallway and the courtyard crept through the windows and doors of the chamber, drowning out lawmakers as they tried to speak on the floor. Some protestors pounded drums for emphasis.

And inside the Senate chambers, the sound of the protesters chanting “In God we trust!” just outside the door is drowning out lawmakers debating legislation. pic.twitter.com/9GYwW3rhmM — Brent Johnson (@johnsb01) December 16, 2019

Anti-vax protestors pressing up against the entrance to the state Senate chamber, chanting "in god we trust," while session continues pic.twitter.com/IPuiXMmkDq — Daniel Munoz (@DanielMunoz100) December 16, 2019

At about 6 p.m., Vitale confirmed to NJ Advance Media he did not have the 21 votes needed to pass the bill in the 40-member Senate. But protesters remained, yelling and cheering until Sweeney official gaveled out two hours later.

Should the Senate eventually pass the bill, it would be up to Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, to decide whether to sign it into law or veto it.

Asked about the measure during an unrelated event in Saddle Brook on Monday, Murphy would not say whether he’d sign it. Instead, he said “the safety of all nine million residents is job No. 1 for me, and in particular our kids.”

“I also want to say we base our decisions on science and facts, and we will do that in this case, as well,” Murphy said. “And lastly, I recognize the passions on this on both sides.”

Since 2008, state law has required parents only to write a letter to their school district saying vaccines violate their religious beliefs without specifying how. The relative ease of the request enabled nearly 14,000 children to get the exemption in the last school year, according to state education data.

Parents who oppose vaccines say they do not trust doctors or pharmaceutical companies and resent having government tell them how they should raise their children. They’ve threatened to homeschool their children or move out of state if the bill eventually becomes law.

Monday’s protests even caught the attention of comedian Rob Schneider, a former “Saturday Night Live” cast member who chimed in on Twitter:

The PEOPLE ARE BEING HEARD in New Jersey VOTE NO @JoeLaganaNJ

Don’t give in to their Opioid Pharma Pressure!

The People of New Jersey will have your back! — Rob Schneider (@RobSchneider) December 16, 2019

Weinberg called the protest “distracting" and reminiscent of the furor stirred by a bill she sponsored years ago when she was in the Assembly that called for regulating home-schooling.

The protesters’ hyperbole and “misinformation" about the harms vaccines cause make it difficult "to have a logical debate for what is best for the children of our state,” Weinberg said.

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01.

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