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(LifeSiteNews) — A woman fired from a Massachusetts hospital for refusing to take the experimental COVID-19 shot for religious reasons has won her appeal and can pursue litigation against her former employer.
In 2021, Rachelle Jeune, a surgical technician, was dismissed from HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital, which falls under the UMass Memorial Health Care system. The hospital denied her request because it said her claims were not based on science and that there was reason to doubt she requested an exemption for deeply held religious beliefs.
“This requester asserts they cannot receive the COVID-19 vaccines based on their Christian faith because they will ‘genetically alter’ their body. This is patently false — none of the COVID-19 vaccines genetically alter the body or change a person’s DNA. Reliance on demonstrably false information cannot be a basis for a religious accommodation,” the hospital’s religious exemption panel decided.
Jeune had argued that the COVID shot, which has been shown to be linked to a litany of health problems, including miscarriages, myocarditis, turbo cancers, and even sudden death, “are not the same as ‘traditional vaccines.’ The possibility of Covid-19 genetically altering my body, the body God create in his image, is against my belief.”
Jeune also said that she received a “distinctive message from my God” not to receive the shot.
UMass Memorial argued that granting Jeune’s request “would create a blanket privilege allowing employees to opt out of any and all employer requirements simply by stating they prayed and received guidance.”
Jeune sued the hospital for discrimination, but a state court found that she “failed to articulate a sincerely held religious belief that precluded her from getting vaccinated,” so it granted summary judgment to UMass Memorial.
Jeune appealed that decision and on Monday, September 29, the Massachusetts Appeals Court sided with her, allowing her to proceed with her original lawsuit for over $100,000 in attorney’s fees, lost wages, and other damages.
“The plaintiff’s stated beliefs that her body is a temple of God and that she prayed to God and received a message not to receive the COVID-19 vaccination were beliefs that a trier of fact could determine were religious in nature,” the court determined. “We further conclude that, on this summary judgment record, UMass Memorial — which has a policy of providing a religious exemption to its vaccination requirement — failed to demonstrate an undue burden as a matter of law.”
UMass Memorial is not the only organization to face repercussions for its draconian COVID policies. Mercyhealth in Wisconsin agreed to a settlement after the Trump administration Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) investigated the group for “denying [employees] a religious accommodation and either terminating their employment or subjecting them to a wage deduction.”
Likewise, a federal appeals court ruled this summer that a Catholic woman may resume her legal case after being fired from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York because her request for a religious exemption from the bank’s COVID-19 shot mandate was denied.
Furthermore, a former IT specialist for Blue Cross Blue Shield in Michigan was awarded a whopping $12 million in damages and lost wages over her dismissal for refusing the COVID-19 shot. The insurer reportedly questioned the sincerity of her religious objections as a Catholic. The woman maintained that the rationale behind the mandate didn’t apply to her because 75 percent of her work was remote before the pandemic and had shifted to fully remote during it, meaning she could not possibly have endangered others even if the shot did prevent transmission, which has since been admitted not to be the case.
“The jury’s verdict today tells [Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan] that religious discrimination has no place in America and affirms each person’s right to religious freedom,” the woman’s attorney Jon Marko said.
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