Amish fined for not getting measles vaccine - true

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But two days of traveling with a health practitioner through the pastoral Amish country of northeastern Ohio found that despite the stereotype, the Amish are not anti-vaccine. Their reasons for rejecting vaccination are more nuanced. Like most other Americans, many had never seen a case of measles before, and were not aware of how dangerous the virus could be, leading to deafness, brain swelling and even death.

There is no particular religious text advising against vaccines, but Amish people do not have regular contact with the western medical system, or have a way to easily travel to appointments, experts said. "A lot of people who haven't gotten vaccinated, it's not because they have a strong stance against getting vaccinated for measles.

But the Second Circuit reaffirmed its ruling against the Amish in June 2026, prompting the current petition. New York officials maintain that the vaccine mandate is a matter of public health necessity, not religious hostility. In October 2026, Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state disaster emergency over a measles spike, with 108 confirmed cases statewide—most concentrated in rural areas with low vaccination rates.

The state has fined each school $2,000 per violation.2 · Following a measles outbreak among Orthodox Jewish congregations in Rockland County, in 2019, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation removing the religious belief exemption from ...

But New York repealed its religious exemption for vaccine mandates for school children in June of 2019. Lawmakers referred to religious beliefs opposing vaccination as “fake” and “garbage.” · In 2022, the State brought an enforcement ...

Amish families will likely have ... with crushing fines for not having students vaccinated The fines are roughly $2,000 per noncompliant children, multiplied by the number of school days 3 small schools were sited, of the 59 ...

Rattled, officials amended the state's legal code in June 2019 to remove all religious exemptions to school vaccine mandates. The legislator who introduced the bill, Jeffrey Dinowitz (D–Bronx), attributed the outbreak to "misinformation and ...

The named families, as administrators of private rural Amish schools, are challenging $118,000 in state fines for not enforcing New York’s 2019 requirement that all schoolchildren, public or private, receive vaccinations regardless of parents’ religious convictions.