Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown Signs Law Eliminating Religious Exemption for Vaccines

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Tuesday that mandates vaccines for nearly all schoolchildren in the state.

The signing of SB 277 comes after a wide-scale outbreak of measles that originated at Disneyland in Anaheim, California last year, resulting in the reported infection of 178 people across multiple states.

The bill signed by Gov. Brown on Tuesday will eliminate the state's personal belief exemption that allows parents to opt out of vaccinating their children based on religious or personal beliefs. Now, the new bill states that children may only forgo a vaccine if they are given explicit permission from their doctor.

"The science is clear that vaccines dramatically protect children against a number of infectious and dangerous diseases," Brown said in a statement after signing the bill. "While it's true that no medical intervention is without risk, the evidence shows that immunization powerfully benefits and protects the community."

Opponents of the bill had taken to social media to voice their concern with the campaign #HearUs days before Gov. Brown signed the bill into law.

Josh Coleman, an opponent of mandatory vaccinations, spoke last week in front of the California Assembly to decry the legislation. Coleman's six-year-old son is wheelchair bound after suffering an adverse reaction to vaccinations he received when he was an infant.

During his speech, Coleman discussed the recent measles outbreak at Disneyland, saying: "At the second-busiest business on the planet, with the most contagious disease on the planet, 134 people got a rash, some got a fever. No one died. ... That incident is proof there is no problem whatsoever, and that we have this thing completely under control."