Over the angry jeers of hundreds of parents, the state Assembly voted Monday to eliminate religion as an acceptable reason for New Jersey children to avoid vaccines required for school attendance.

The state Senate was expected to vote on the controversial bill later in the day at the Statehouse in Trenton. If it passes both houses, it would go to Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat who would decide whether to sign it into law.

A crowd of more than 500 people converged outside the Statehouse hours before the vote, demanding lawmakers respect their constitutional rights. Chant of “Kill the Bill!" and “We Won’t Stop” could be heard down West State Street.

Hundreds of protesters are outside the Senate chanting “Kill the bill,” referring to the bill that would do away with religious exemptions for childhood vaccines. pic.twitter.com/whIMxWT6nS — Amanda Hoover 👩🏻‍🦰 (@amandahoovernj) December 16, 2019

After the 45-24 vote with seven abstentions, protesters in the gallery chanted, “We will not comply!”

Assemblyman Herb Conaway, D-Burlington, a physician who chairs the Assembly Health Committee and bill sponsor, encouraged his colleagues to set aside the “junk science” that passes for facts on the internet.

His bill would “make sure no family, no individuals suffer a loss that might have been prevented with a vaccine,” Conaway said.

The effort to clamp down on the overuse of religious exemptions began about seven years ago, as public health experts argued parents were exploiting the loophole because most major religions do not oppose vaccines. The religious exemption doubled as a philosophical argument, vaccine supporter say, and because New Jersey only requires a letter from a parent to obtain the exemption, opting out was easy.

There are 14,000 school-age children in New Jersey who have not been vaccinated because their parents obtained a religious exemption, according to the state Department of Education.

Many opponents say they have opted-out because embryonic tissue extracted from aborted fetuses in the 1960s is used to make the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine. Others said they mistrust the medical and pharmaceutical industries and say that God had created their bodies strong enough without vaccines.

Conaway said he was motivated to eradicate the religious exemption as measles outbreaks dominated the news over the last two years.

There have been 19 confirmed cases of measles this year in New Jersey, and 1,276 nationwide.

The bill would allow only children with serious medical conditions to seek an exemption to the vaccine laws. The state Health Department would define which health conditions would qualify, and a physician, advance practice nurse or physician assistant must verify in writing the child had the disqualifying illness, according to the bill.

If Murphy agrees with the bill, the law would take effect six months after he signs it. New Jersey would be the sixth state to pass such a law. California, Maine, Mississippi, New York and West Virginia have eliminated religious exemptions.

Republican Assembly members, who voted against the bill, sharply questioned Conaway on how the law would work.

“You have a child 13 or 14 years old, who have never had any vaccines. What is parent supposed to do? You can’t give them those vaccines overnight," Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick R-Union said.

Conaway said the law would not take effect until the beginning of the 2020-21 academic year, so there would be time. And it wouldn’t be safe to give a child all mandated vaccines at once. “A notice will go out. You will have time,” he said.

Assemblywoman Mila Jasey, D-Essex, a retired nurse, said parental skepticism over the science supporting vaccines threatens to erode the 95 percent vaccination rate needed to provide “herd immunity” for people too sick to get vaccinated.

Statewide, unvaccinated children because of religious exemptions account for 2.6% of the school population, although it is 5% in Sussex County and 4.6% each in Monmouth and Hunterdon counties, state data says.

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