A federal judge in Maine on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed by a group of health care workers in Maine who said they were unfairly discriminated against for being forced to get the COVID-19 vaccine requirement or lose their jobs.
The plaintiffs sued several health organizations and state officials, arguing that the vaccine mandate violated their right to free exercise of religion because it did not provide an exemption for religious beliefs. In the suit, plaintiffs stated that aborted fetuses were used in the development of all three available COVID-19 vaccines and that abortion went against their sincerely held religious beliefs, according to documents in Alicia Lowe, et. al. v. Janet Mills, in her official capacity as Governor of the State of Maine, et. al.
A judge with the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, wrote that the COVID-19 vaccine mandate is “neutral” in that it does not mention religion, and that it was “rationally based” in that “reducing the number of unvaccinated health care workers at designated health care facilities in Maine is rationally related to the government’s interests in limiting the spread of COVID-19, safeguarding Maine’s health care capacity, and protecting the lives and health of Maine people.”
In addition, state lawmakers in 2019 removed religious and philosophical exemptions in its language concerning mandatory vaccines for health care workers — two years before the COVID vaccine mandate was issued for health care workers in the state, according to the ruling.
The plaintiff’s attorneys said publicly that they plan to appeal the ruling.
