Weaker conscience law goes to Senate amid GOP taunts
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - The Senate scheduled a vote Thursday night on a weakened and criticized plan to preserve ramifications for those who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Democrats who control both houses of the General Assembly have struggled through caustic debate in pushing a planned COVID carve-out of the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act on the last day of the Legislature's fall session. It was approved in the 1970s initially to protect physicians from repercussions for refusing, based on religious beliefs, to perform abortions.
Supporters argue the law was never intended to give similar protections to people who refuse to get a preventive shot in a worldwide pandemic. Republicans' taunts accuse them of changing the rules of the game because Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker can't get sufficient buy-in to his virus mitigation plan, ridiculed by the GOP as a series of top-down demands without public input.
The proposal, which won House approval Wednesday night, doesn't require anyone to be vaccinated. It targets the law's language prohibiting retribution, such as dismissal from a job, in the case of the COVID-19 vaccine. Senate President Don Harmon, the Oak Park Democrat sponsoring the legislation, shot down a provocative Republican suggestion that the change would allow a motorist stopped for driving under the influence to refuse a breath test on moral grounds.
'œThe intent has been misconstrued. To your point on the DUI stop, I can refuse the breathalyzer should I choose to, but there are consequences of making that choice,'ť Harmon said. 'œThat's what we're talking about here today. We're not saying you can't exercise your rights, we're saying if you exercise your rights, there may be consequences with other people.'ť
Tamara Williams said she explicitly laid out her religious objections to being vaccinated or submitting to weekly COVID-19 testing to Indian Prairie School District 204, based in Aurora, where she was a teacher's aide. But the school district rejected her plea and she was dismissed last Friday.
She told the Senate Executive Committee Thursday that she's accepted other required inoculations, 'œbut this vaccine is different.'ť
'œIt only rolled out in less than a year. There is a lot of documentation on adverse reactions. And according to my religious beliefs, there is fetal cell line material in all of the vaccines that I am 100% against...,'ť Williams said. 'œWe should have the right to decide what goes into our bodies.'ť
Similar dismissals have gone to court, both at the state and federal levels, where judges are asked to overturn the reprisal based on the Right of Conscience Act. There are nine cases alone in which the state is defendant, according to Attorney General Kwame Raoul's office.
But even if there's a Senate OK and Pritzker signs it without delay, it won't stop any lawsuits for months. Initially, the legislation, which the House approved 64-52, had an immediate effective date, which would have required a three-fifths majority, or 71 votes. Forecasting a vote falling short, the effective date was removed, meaning the law wouldn't take effect until mid-next year.
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