An unnamed student who attends a Christian church in a California county has sued the San Diego Unified School District in federal court, alleging religious discrimination over the county's vaccine mandates. The requirement orders that all eligible students must be fully vaccinated against COVID by the end of December. The 16 year old student, who attends Scripps Ranch High School, is identified as Jane Doe in the complaint.
According to Christian Headlines, the Thomas More Society filed the lawsuit against San Diego County, which claimed that the student's "faith tradition recognizes the morally problematic nature of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines." The lawsuit argued that the vaccine would violate her constitutional rights to freedom of religion under the First Amendment because they were "either manufactured or tested using material derived from stem cell lines from aborted fetuses."
The lawsuit read that the student is "firmly pro-life and accepts her faith's teaching that she cannot participate in the horror of abortion in any way." Attorney Paul Jonna, who was assigned the case, said he is seeking an emergency injunction against the vaccine mandate before November 29, which is the set date for eligible students to get the COVID vaccine's first dose. Jonna refused to disclose which church or denomination the student belonged to, but described her family as "devout Christians."
The Los Angeles Times reported that on September 28, the San Diego Unified School Board unanimously approved a vaccine mandate that required staff and students aged 16 and above to be fully vaccinated against COVID by December 20 to continue attending in-person classes at the school. Those who defy the mandate will have to resort to remote learning. The district added that California state law on existing immunizations don't allow for students' personal belief exemptions.
The lawsuit noted that under San Diego's policy, teachers and other staff members can require for exemptions from the vaccine mandate on the basis of religious or personal beliefs, but students who refuse to get vaccinated can only be exempted for medical purposes.
However, certain groups such as students who are "foster youth, homeless, migrant, from a military family or on Individualized Education Programs" are not required to comply with the San Diego County's vaccine mandate schedule. The lawsuit argued that if those students are eligible for vaccine postponements or exemptions, regular students who seek religious exemptions should also be allowed to do so.
"What our clients have an objection to is developing a vaccine using either actual fetal cells in the development of vaccine or testing them on fetal cell lines," Jonna remarked. The COVID vaccines themselves do not contain any fetal stem cells, but stem cells that were cultivated from samples obtained in elective abortions in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the United States Southern Baptist Convention and the Vatican have already issued statements advising the faithful that getting the vaccine does not constitute participating in or supporting abortions.
