A group of New York lawmakers wants to draw the line on religious freedom when it comes to requiring vaccinations for children in public, private and parochial schools.

Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli, D-Syracuse, is among seven co-sponsors of a bill that would end New York’s long-standing practice of exempting students from vaccinations if it violates their religious beliefs.

The lawmakers say New York should join other states in more aggressively enforcing mandatory vaccinations amid a measles outbreak that infected at least 206 people in 11 states in January and February.

Since then the outbreak has grown. In New York, the worst measles outbreak in decades has infected 144 people in Rockland County this year through Wednesday. An additional 133 cases have been confirmed in Brooklyn and Queens, and seven cases in Monroe County as of this week.

At least 21 of the cases were connected to one yeshiva in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community that did not enforce the vaccination requirement.

Health officials say the highly-contagious respiratory disease has continued to spread, in part, because of children who never received the measles vaccination.

New York and most states ban students from attending school unless they receive vaccinations for measles and other diseases. The state offers exemptions only for religious and medical reasons. If parents without exemptions still choose to not vaccinate their children, those children are banned from school.

Magnarelli said the measles outbreak underscores why New York needs to ban religious exemptions for vaccinations.

“The bottom line is to keep protecting the general public from having preventable outbreaks of diseases that have been, at least up to now, largely eradicated in our country due to vaccinations,” Magnarelli said.

He added, “The only exemption should be for situations where the immunization would be detrimental to a child’s health.”

The bill introduced in late January has yet to gain momentum in Albany. Magnarelli is among seven co-sponsors of the legislation written by Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, D-Bronx.

Dinowitz and the other lawmakers say it has become clear that the need to protect public health should take priority over an individual’s religious beliefs.

Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show at least 285 schools in New York have an immunization rate below 85 percent, and 170 schools are below 70 percent.

The CDC says a 95 percent vaccination rate is necessary to maintain “herd immunity,” the rate necessary to stop the spread of preventable diseases that include mumps, measles, diphtheria, rubella, hepatitis B, poliomyelitis and varicella.

Assemblyman Pat Burke, D-Buffalo, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, said in a statement that he understands why some people might be upset about ending the religious exemption for the vaccinations.

“Freedom of religion is a fundamental right enshrined in our Constitution,” Burke said. “What leads to debate is where that line is drawn. Can parents refuse basic medical treatment for their child in the name of religion? I would generally say no.”

He cited the 2008 case of Kara Neumann, an 11-year-old Wisconsin girl who died after her parents chose faith healing over medical treatment for her diabetes. The parents were convicted of second-degree reckless homicide.

“There are limitations on religion when it is proven to cause direct harm to an individual or group,” Burke said.

Most states allow exemptions from vaccinations for religious reasons, but this year’s measles outbreak has prompted New Jersey, Vermont, Maine, Iowa, Oregon and Washington to reconsider the policy.

California banned religious and all “personal belief” exemptions in 2016 after a measles outbreak that began at Disneyland and spread to seven states. California children now have the highest vaccination rate since 1998.

The bill to ban religious exemptions in New York comes only months after a state Senate committee passed legislation that would have made it easier for children to obtain the exemption on religious grounds. The bill did not advance to a vote in the full state Legislature.

Advocates wanted to standardize the religious exemption law for public and private schools so that a parent’s signature would be the only requirement to have their children opt out of a vaccination. The existing law gives school districts the discretion to determine if a parent’s religious beliefs are valid.

Rita Palma, a Long Island woman who founded the group “My Kids, My Choice” that advocates for a broad religious exemption, said Thursday that the bill to end the exemption is unlikely to gain much support in the Assembly or Senate.

“We have been told by those in leadership in both houses that there is little appetite for removing a religious right,” Palma said.

Contact Mark Weiner: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751