Good morning everyone. As you all may or may not know, our senate is trying to pass a bill on Monday, bill S2173 and bill A3818, to remove religious exemption from vaccines for all NJ families. This bill will also make getting a medical exemption incredibly hard to get. If this bill passes, this will allow NJ government to take away more and more of our medical freedom as time goes on. Imagine being forced to make a medical decision for your child, that you are against, that you know could harm them, or that they have already had a reaction to. IF this bill passes, and if NJ follows in the way of how NY is doing things, the HPV vaccine will be next to be voted on. If that passes next, that means that your child would be given the HPV vaccine in school WITHOUT parental consent!

Senator Sweeney, a father of a child with Down syndrome, is all for this bill and is doing everything he can to make this bill go through. Sweeney replaced 3 health committee members on Wednesday for their Thursday health committe meeting because he knew those 3 members were going to oppose the bill.

As a parent of a child with Down syndrome, I'm not sure how he thinks it's okay to force parents to make a medical decision for their own child. I can guarantee there have been times in his daughter's life where he did not fully agree with what he was being told to do for HIS daughter. Isn't that what 2nd opinions are for? Isn't that what parental rights are for? Isn't that what medical freedom is for?

If this bill passes, many children with Down syndrome and other learning disabilities will be forced out of school. They will no longer have an IEP to guide them. The state has an obligation to provide a free PUBLIC education to all children. "The Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all children in the state between the ages of five and eighteen years. — New Jersey Constitution

If you are OPPOSED to giving up your medical freedom for your child, please sign this petition so I can pass it along to Senator Sweeney.

Thank you!