Chicago-area hospital workers sue over vaccine mandate, citing religious objections

Fourteen employees of a Chicago-area hospital system are suing after they said they are being forced to leave their jobs because of religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine.

The class action lawsuit was filed on Monday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, according to Liberty Counsel, the group representing the employees.

The employees, all of whom were named anonymously in the case, oppose NorthShore University Health System’s decision to refuse to grant them exemptions to the vaccine mandate for their religious beliefs. NorthShore’s deadline for all of its employees to be vaccinated is Oct. 31, according to the lawsuit.

The employees involved include nurses, a pharmacy technician and a senior application analyst. Their complaint says some of them disprove of the vaccines’ links to aborted fetuses, according to The Chicago Tribune. 

“Plaintiffs have sincerely held religious beliefs that they are being guided and instructed by the Holy Spirit not to accept any of the three currently available COVID-19 vaccines and that it would be a sin against God to do so,” the complaint said.

The three COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the U.S. do not contain any fetal cells. Cell lines from two abortions that occurred in the last century were used in testing and developing the vaccines. 

Religious entities have condoned the vaccine publicly. For example, the Vatican issued a statement in December that said “it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process.”

“We value their committed service and respect their beliefs,” NorthShore said in the statement regarding the employees’ decision.  “However, COVID-19 has presented unique challenges that continue to threaten our communities and therefore we must prioritize the safety of our patients and team members in support of our broader mission.”

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s guidelines require that employees can ask for exemptions from vaccine mandates for a reason like a sincerely held religious belief. However, employers can reject that request if an unvaccinated person would threaten others in the workplace, the Tribune reported.

In Illinois, all health care workers in the state must be vaccinated or face weekly COVID-19 testing. Some Chicago-area hospitals like NorthShore have imposed stricter policies than the rules at the state level, according to the Tribune. 

The Hill has reached out to Liberty Counsel and to NorthShore University HealthSystem for comment.