Conway Regional Hospital Denies Allegations in Religious Discrimination Lawsuit, Asks Court to Dismiss Claims

Bioethics, COVID-19, , ,
Above: The religious exemption attestation form that Conway Regional Health System rolled out in September.

Attorneys for Conway Regional Medical Center have asked a judge to dismiss most of the allegations raised in a religious discrimination lawsuit brought against the hospital in October.

Research and development for the COVID-19 vaccines used cells that originated from aborted babies. As a result, some pro-lifers have objections to the COVID-19 vaccines, because of the vaccines’ connection to abortion.

In September Conway Regional made headlines after the hospital announced that employees who wanted a religious exemption because of the COVID-19 vaccine’s connection to abortion would also have to sign a form attesting that the employees would not use other medicines — such as Tylenol and Tums — that have been tested on aborted fetal tissue.

In October six individuals who are past or present employees of Conway Regional filed a lawsuit against the hospital.

According to the lawsuit, all six of the plaintiffs are Christians who have religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine.

In an amended complaint filed on December 9, attorneys for the six plaintiffs provided the court with emails from Conway Regional’s CEO regarding the vaccine mandate.

The amended complaint alleges that one of the emails from Conway Regional’s CEO “equated employees who request religious exemptions from [the medical center’s] mandatory COVID vaccine policy with draft dodgers.”

Attorneys for the hospital responded to the amended complaint on Wednesday, generally denying the allegations and asking the court to dismiss all but two of the plaintiffs’ claims against Conway Regional.

Time will tell whether or not the court decides to dismiss any part of the religious discrimination lawsuit against Conway Regional Medical Center.

In September the Arkansas Legislature passed two identical laws addressing COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The laws require employers to provide certain accommodations for employees who decline to get vaccinated.

The Arkansas Attorney General’s Office also has joined multiple lawsuits against the Biden Administration’s federal vaccine mandates.

Family Council has a long history of supporting exemptions from vaccine mandates in Arkansas.

We don’t oppose immunizations, but we do believe people’s rights of conscience ought to be respected when it comes to getting vaccinated. Our laws should protect people from being forced to violate their conscience.

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Conway Regional Hospital Faces Religious Discrimination Lawsuit Over COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

COVID-19,

Conway Regional Hospital faces a lawsuit over its vaccine mandates for employers and its failure to grant certain religious exemptions from the mandate.

The lawsuit names six individuals who are past or present employees of Conway Regional. According to the lawsuit, all six of the plaintiffs are Christians who have religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine. The lawsuit alleges that Conway Regional is requiring employees to provide unreasonable information in order to obtain a religious exemption from the hospital’s vaccine requirement.

Above: The religious exemption attestation form that Conway Regional Health System rolled out in September.

Some pro-lifers around the country have objected to the COVID-19 vaccines, because cells originating from aborted fetal tissue were used in the vaccines’ research and development.

In September Conway Regional made headlines after the hospital announced that employees who wanted a religious exemption because of the vaccine’s connection to abortion would also have to sign a form attesting that the employees would not use other medicines — such as Tylenol and Tums — that have been tested on aborted fetal tissue.

The lawsuit against Conway Regional alleges,

Conway Regional is discriminating against certain Christian employees by segregating vaccinated employees and providing them with better terms and conditions of employment and stigmatizing certain Christian employees, including these Plaintiffs, who object to the COVID-19 vaccine and have sought a religious exemption. . . .

Conway Regional has failed to accommodate Plaintiffs by not granting them a religious exemption from the requirement to take the COVID-19 vaccine and/or failing to accommodate them by making unreasonable requests to provide information relating to the Plaintiffs’ religious beliefs.

The State of Arkansas has joined multiple lawsuits against the Biden Administration’s federal vaccine mandates, and in September the Arkansas Legislature passed two identical measures requiring employers to provide certain accommodations for employees who decline to get vaccinated.

Family Council has a long history of working on exemptions from vaccine mandates in Arkansas. We don’t oppose immunizations, but we do believe people’s rights of conscience ought to be respected when it comes to getting a vaccine. State law should protect people from being forced to violate their conscience.

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Arkansas Joins Second Lawsuit Against Biden Administration’s Vaccine Mandates

COVID-19,

On Wednesday Arkansas’ Attorney General’s office joined a coalition of states in a second lawsuit challenging the Biden Administration’s federal vaccine mandates.

The lawsuit was filed against the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in federal court in Missouri.

Besides Arkansas, plaintiffs in the lawsuit include attorneys general from Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and New Hampshire.

This latest lawsuit is in addition to one that Arkansas joined last week in the Eighth Circuit against the U.S. Department of Labor.

The lawsuit is directed at the federal government’s COVID vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. The mandate requires employees at healthcare facilities that receive Medicaid or Medicare funding to be vaccinated.

The lawsuit argues that the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers is unlawful and “threatens to exacerbate an alarming shortage of healthcare workers, particularly in rural communities.”

It also notes that the Biden’s Administration mandate would conflict with Arkansas’ state laws concerning immunizations — including a new law recently passed at the state legislature’s extended session.

You can read the legal challenge against the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate here.

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