New Hampshire legislators on Feb. 19 rejected a bill that would have banned vaccine mandates.

The state’s House of Representatives voted 192–155 against House Bill 1811. Thirty-four Republicans opposed the legislation, as did all Democrats who voted.

State Rep. Matt Drew, a Republican who sponsored the legislation, tried to garner more support by introducing an amendment that would have continued requiring polio vaccination for school attendance. That amendment was voted down 171–166 before the vote on the full bill.

New Hampshire currently mandates that children receive vaccinations against hepatitis B, polio, and eight other diseases to attend school or day care. Exemptions are available for children whose families object to vaccination due to religious beliefs, and kids whose doctors attest that immunization could be detrimental to their health.

Activists in a new coalition that is seeking to ban immunization mandates across the country, based on a bill approved in Idaho, had hoped New Hampshire would be one of the next states to forbid vaccination requirements.

Drew told colleagues ahead of the vote that the bill would not ban vaccines or reduce their availability.

“What it does do is remove the vaccine mandate from statute. What a vaccine mandate does is force some children to accept risk and injury in order to protect others,” he said on the House floor.

“I urge you to listen to the opponents of this bill. They will tell you about the dangers of contagious disease which are real. They will tell you about the benefits of the vaccines. If they mention safety at all, they will assure you that the vaccines are very safe and effective. What they won’t ever do is talk about the risks in detail. This is a narrative playbook designed to elicit compliance.”

New Hampshire Rep. Jessica LaMontagne, a Democrat who voted against the bill, said on the floor that injuries from vaccines are rare and that if mandates were removed, that would suggest “to the public that the state was wrong about them before and that maybe vaccines aren’t safe after all.”

She expressed concern that ending mandates would lead to reduced vaccination rates.

Earlier in February, the state’s House passed a separate bill that, if approved by the Senate and signed by New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, would remove hepatitis B from the list of required vaccines. The vote on the bill, co-sponsored by Drew and other Republicans, was 186–168.

The GOP controls both legislative chambers in New Hampshire.