The Agudah stressed that the posters are fraudulent. The posters claimed that the New York state legislature would vote "TODAY" on a law requiring girls to be vaccinated for Human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted virus that has been linked to several types of cancer.
"Any authentic public communication sent from Agudath Israel will always have the name and contact of a staff member for easy authentication. They will also be posted on our website, Agudah.org, and on Twitter @AgudahNews," stated the Agudah. The organization is seeking legal action against those behind the counterfeit posters.
The fake posters warned that if young girls weren't vaccinated they would not "be allowed to have a Bais Yaakov education!" Bais Yaakov is a network of Orthodox Jewish schools for girls throughout the world.
The proposal referenced in the posters is not set to be voted on for at least the next few days, if not weeks, according to Boro Park 24.
The Yeshiva World, a Jewish-American news source, "confirmed" that anti-vaxxers, people who refuse to vaccinate, had placed the posters.
The proposed law sparked protests from parents who argued that such a mandate would override their parental authority over their children and expose them to a vaccine with what they claim are "unacceptable risks," according to the Niagra Gazette.
New York ended religious exemptions for vaccine requirements at schools last year. The proposal would simply add the HPV vaccine to the list of required vaccines.
Hundreds of protesters showed up at the statehouse for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's State of the State speech. One sign held by a protester read "My kids are NOT property of the government."
The HPV vaccine prevents cancer-causing infections and precancers (abnormal cells on the cervix that can lead to cancer), according to the CDC. The CDC stresses that over 12 years of monitoring and research have shown that the vaccination is "very safe and effective."
The bill is being promoted by Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, who is also pushing a bill to allow youth to get HPV vaccinations without parental consent.
Simultaneously, an attempt to cancel religious exemptions for childhood vaccines in New Jersey failed on Monday, according to The New York Times.
Doctors and public health experts said that the bill was necessary to prevent the type of measles outbreak that struck the country last year. State Senate president, Stephen M. Sweeney, promised "It's going to get done," adding that this is a "real public health emergency."
Protesters against the bill in New Jersey wore stickers reading "My God. My body. My right."
Rabbi Avi Schnall, the New Jersey director of Agudath Israel, stated, "We are relieved that the majority of the state legislators were willing to be bold enough and strong enough to stand up for religious freedom."
Measles outbreaks occurred in Israel and New York last year, with many of the cases occurring in Orthodox communities in both places. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot declared a public health emergency in April warning that all unvaccinated people in Brooklyn would now be required to receive the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine or face strict penalties.
In 2018, the New York Health Department announced that students who had not received the required number of doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, would not be allowed to attend school.