Study finds there's been an increase in parents claiming religious exemptions for vaccines

A new study published Monday found that more parents are claiming that due to religious beliefs, their children must be exempt from vaccinations.

At the same time, the number of Americans who say they are part of an organized religion has dropped, suggesting the rise in religious exemptions could be related to stricter school vaccination policies, Stat News reports. Children must be vaccinated to enroll in school in all 50 states and the District of Columbia unless they have a medical issue and cannot be vaccinated due to health reasons.

In most states, there are also two other options for parents who do not want to vaccinate their children — they can ask for a religious exemption or a personal belief exemption. The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that states without the personal belief exemption are four times as likely to have parents requesting religious exemptions versus states with both kinds of exemptions, Stat News says.

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In 2016, Vermont got rid of the personal belief exemption, for example, and researchers found that there was a sevenfold increase in religious exemption claims. "What our study shows is that the rate of religious exemptions varies by whether or not the state offers an alternative personal belief exemption," lead author Dr. Joshua Williams told Stat News. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said for the 2018-2019 school year, 2.5 percent of students received a vaccination exemption, up slightly from previous years.