The Connecticut Legislature is considering a good bill that would eliminate religious exemptions from vaccine requirements for public school students.

Many states, including Connecticut, have allowed parents to claim a religious exemption from regulations that require they vaccinate their children. When parents choose not to vaccinate, it not only compromises the health of their own children, but also jeopardizes the “herd immunity” for those who cannot receive vaccinations for health reasons.

This bill, Connecticut H.B. 5044, would improve the state’s ability to combat infectious diseases by removing the possibility of religious exemption from mandatory vaccines for children in public schools and day cares.

It is critical that we counter the influence of anti-science religious zealots, whose dangerous rhetoric has caused very serious and preventable infectious disease outbreaks in numerous states across the country. For example, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the reported individual cases of measles in the first four months of 2019 surpassed the total cases per year since 2000. The states that see the highest incidences of the disease are those with the most relaxed exemption laws.

Please stand up for this common sense bill that will protect Connecticut residents from the dangerous implications of others people’s religious dogma. Please use our simple, automated system to ask your representative to support H.B. 5044 and feel free to use or adapt the provided talking points.

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