An Oklahoma court has temporarily suspended a Catholic hospital’s vaccine mandate.
Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor filed a lawsuit against the Catholic healthcare provider Ascension Healthcare, alleging that the organization denied a religious exemption to the vaccine for illegitimate reasons. The Tulsa District Court granted the request on Friday.
“This is a win for religious freedom, and our office will continue to fight against unlawful religious discrimination.” The attorney general’s office tweeted.
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The lawsuit came after Ascension filed a mandate in the summer requiring all of its healthcare employees to be vaccinated by Nov. 12 or face termination.
The lawsuit alleges that Mitchell Duininck, a physician in Tulsa, sought a religious exemption. Duininick claims that taking a vaccine that had aborted fetal cells involved would violate his sincerely held religious beliefs.
The physician filed a seven-page letter explaining his request, only for the request to be denied.
“We will not tolerate any form of religious discrimination against Oklahomans who seek reasonable accommodations from vaccine mandates based on their sincerely held religious beliefs,” O’Connor said in a press release.
Ascension had previously stated that anyone attempting to argue for a religious exemption based on the presence of aborted fetal cells would not be allowed.
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Medical officials have stated that while aborted fetal cells from the 1960s and 70s were used to develop the vaccines, the vaccines themselves do not have any fetal cells within them. Several religious leaders, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Greek Orthodox Church, and other Protestant denominational leadership have determined that the vaccines are ethical for anti-abortion individuals to use and have discouraged using religious exemptions to oppose vaccines.
Ascension Healthcare did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
