New Jersey lawmakers on Monday appeared poised to approve legislation eliminating religious exemptions to vaccine requirements for school-aged children.

The State Assembly passed the bill in a 45-25 vote with six abstentions, according to reports. The measure, which was expected to see a vote in the state Senate on Monday night, would apply to private and public schools, as well as day-care centers. If the Democratic-led Senate approves the bill, it would then head to Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk (D).

The push to pass the legislation arrives at the end of a year in which measles outbreaks around the U.S. led to active calls from lawmakers to end personal, philosophical or religious exemptions for vaccinations against the disease.

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New York passed similar legislation to bar religious exemptions, but the New Jersey proposal goes one step further by eliminating the exemption in higher education institutions, The New York Times noted.

If passed and signed into law by Murphy, New Jersey would become the sixth state in the U.S. to allow only medical exemptions, joining California, Maine, Mississippi, New York and West Virginia.

“States have a compelling interest in preventing disease and death,” New Jersey Assemblyman Herb Conaway, who is a practicing physician and chairman of the Assembly Health Committee, said when he introduced the legislation, according to The Times.

Hundreds of opponents to the bill convened outside the New Jersey statehouse hours before the State Assembly's vote, NJ.com reported. Protesters reportedly chanted "we will not comply" after hearing that the state's lower chamber had approved the legislation.

“Kill the bill,” protesters chant outside the Senate chamber, opposing a bill that would remove exemptions from vaccination requirements based on religion. Still waiting on Senate to begin its voting session. pic.twitter.com/GUHB6SEDQQ — Stacey Barchenger (@sbarchenger) December 16, 2019

Video shared on Twitter also showed demonstrators loudly chanting "kill the bill" and brandishing signs that read "hands off our kids."

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Republican Assembly minority leader Jon Bramnick reportedly echoed their concerns while speaking on the floor ahead of a vote. He argued that the bill's language was too broad, and expressed issues with a provision tightening the rules for granting medical exemptions.

In 2019, the U.S. experienced the most reported measles cases in almost three decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with more than 75 percent linked to outbreaks in New York. The majority of cases are among people who do not receive vaccinations.

NJ.com, citing data from the Department of Education, noted that 14,000 school-aged children in New Jersey have not been vaccinated because their families received a religious exemption. There were also reportedly 19 confirmed cases of measles in the state in 2019.