Only it doesn’t. In this country, citing religious or spiritual convictions is often a surefire way to get out of doing something you’re required by law to do. If your religion claims that homosexuality is sinful, this logic goes, then why should you be required to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple? If practicing birth control runs counter to your church’s teaching, then why should the health insurance you offer your employees be required to cover a vasectomy? And why, if your religion teaches you to forego vaccines that prevent viral illnesses, should you be required to vaccinate your children?

At this very moment, nature is providing the perfect response in the form of a measles outbreak the likes of which we have not seen in this country for a quarter-century. Of the 764 confirmed cases so far this year, the vast majority are clustered in New York City, primarily in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities where some view vaccines as a violation of kosher restrictions and a danger to children’s health.

This is not a position held by most prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbis, and most ultra-Orthodox Jews are vaccinated. But enough of them are not — and there are enough pockets of other parents around the country, liberal and conservative, who have refused to vaccinate their children on religious or philosophical grounds — that health officials are scrambling. In 2000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared measles “eliminated” in the United States, but already this year measles cases have been confirmed in 23 states, and warm weather will likely exacerbate those numbers.

Here’s what also exacerbates those numbers: failure of political will. While New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio has declared a public health emergency and closed some yeshivas in response to the outbreak, state lawmakers so far have refused to revoke the religious exemption for vaccination. All 50 states require children to be vaccinated before enrolling in public school, but the vast majority of them allow for similar religious or philosophical exemptions.

Here in Tennessee, an unvaccinated man traveled to Alabama and Mississippi while infected with measles, and state health officials are now trying to reach more than 600 people in several states whom he may have exposed to the virus. Outbreaks related to other unvaccinated travelers are being reported in California, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan and New Jersey. Almost all the victims are unvaccinated children.