On Aug. 18, 2021, Hochul signed into law a vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. Initially, the law permitted an exemption for religious beliefs. This was removed Aug. 26.
The mandate stated that anyone who refused to get vaccinated would be fired, and would not be permitted to receive unemployment benefits.
While many of the plaintiffs are Catholics, Catholic leaders have encouraged Catholics to receive the coronavirus vaccine. Catholic teaching does, however, discourage the use of vaccine mandates, saying that people should not be coerced into violating their consciences.
The three coronavirus vaccines currently available in the United States were all either developed or produced using a fetal cell line that may have been derived from an elective abortion.
New York is one of three states that do not permit religious exemptions to their existing vaccine mandate.
“The Biden Administration and 47 states know that they need to protect religious liberty for healthcare workers,” Mark Rienzi, president of Becket and a professor at The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law, told CNA Feb. 15.
Credit: Source link