Babies Are Getting Measles In The Womb. That Wasn’t A Problem Before The Vaccine, Pediatricians Say

A blue state recently reported an alarming rise of infants born with measles and pushed vaccination — these cases may be the result of lost natural immunization after the introduction of the MMR vaccine, doctors say.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) issued an alert about an increase in measles cases during pregnancy on Oct. 19, and confirmed that 66 mothers had come down with the disease and at least six babies were born with it in Pennsylvania throughout 2026, doctors told NBC. While the DOH said that day in a press release that getting the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine “is the best way to prevent measles and newborn measles,” some pediatricians and family practice doctors disagree, according to an article published Monday in the Defender, Children’s Health Defense‘s news source.

Doctors who spoke with the outlet said that congenital measles — when a baby is born with the disease passed down by his or her mother in utero — used to be a rare occurrence before the vaccine was introduced more than 50 years ago. They added that decades of research shows that vaccine-induced immunity is weaker than natural immunity to the measles disease.