Judge Blocks New York's Medical Worker Vaccine Mandate

NEW YORK — A federal judge temporarily blocked the state of New York on Tuesday from forcing medical workers to be vaccinated after a group of health care workers sued, saying their Constitutional rights were violated because the mandate disallows religious exemptions, the Associated Press reported.

Judge David Hurd in Utica issued the order after the Thomas More Society filed a suit Monday on behalf of 17 health professionals claiming that their rights were violated by a vaccine mandate that disallowed the exemptions.

Hurd's ruling comes after a judge on Sunday refused to issue a temporary restraining order based on a lawsuit by two healthcare workers on Long Island.

The plaintiffs, who said they were Christians, said they are not “anti-vaxxers” who oppose all vaccines, the AP reported.

Scientists say the COVID-19 vaccines do not contain aborted fetal cells but that they, and vaccines for chickenpox, rubella, hepatitis A and rabies, were developed using cells grown in a laboratory based on fetal cells collected generations ago.

The plaintiffs include practicing doctors, nurses, a nuclear medicine technologist, a cognitive rehabilitation therapist and a physician’s liaison who said they all oppose as a matter of religious conviction any medical cooperation in abortion, according to the AP.

Judge Hurd gave New York state until Sept. 22 to respond to the lawsuit in federal court in Utica. If the state opposes the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary court order blocking the vaccine mandate, a Sept. 28 oral hearing will occur, the AP said.

The state issued the order Aug. 28, requiring at least a first shot for health care workers at hospitals and nursing homes by Sept. 27.

In their lawsuit, health care professionals disguised their identities with pseudonyms and said they feared threats, retaliation and ostracization.

They cited violations of the U.S. Constitution, along with the New York State Human Rights Law and New York City Human Rights Law, because the state Department of Health regulation requiring workers to get the vaccine provided no exemption for “sincere religious beliefs that compel the refusal of such vaccination.”

The Associated Press sent messages seeking comment to lawyers for the Thomas More Society, the New York state health department and the New York’s governor’s office. The state attorney general’s office referred questions to the health department.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities has said, "One may receive any of the clinically recommended vaccines in good conscience with the assurance that reception of such vaccines does not involve immoral cooperation in abortion."

The Archdiocese of New York has instructed priests not to grant religious exemptions for COVID-19 vaccines, saying that doing so would contradict the pope, the Catholic News Agency reported.

Opposition to the state's vaccination mandate is not only based on religious convictions. At a protest on Long Island Sept. 7, a mix of anti-vaxxers and healthcare workers from across Long Island, as well as their supporters, held signs that said "Let Me Call My Own Shots," "My Rights Are Essential," "From Hero To Zero," and "My Body, My Choice, My Rights." . SEE: Protesters Decry Healthcare Worker Vaccine Mandate