Hospitals illegally firing nurses for refusing flu vaccines in violation of state law, Civil Rights Act(NaturalNews) If you live in the United States and work in the
healthcare field, your personal freedom to make your own healthcare
decisions may soon be on the chopping block, that is if it has not
already been nixed. According to reports, an increasing number of
hospitals and healthcare facilities across the country are caving to
government propaganda pressuring them to illegally terminate all
healthcare workers who refuse influenza vaccines, an authoritarian trend
that openly violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well
as state law.
As reported by
ABC News, one such hospital
in Indiana has already canned at least eight employees, including three
veteran nurses, for refusing to be injected with high-risk chemicals and
viral fragments disguised as preventive medicine. Defying these
employees' natural and constitutional rights to govern the affairs of
their own bodies, the hospital warned these faithful workers that if
they did not get a flu shot by December 15, they would immediately be
fired -- and several of them have since been terminated.
"This is
my body. I have a right to refuse the flu vaccine," explained
61-year-old Ethel Hoover, a veteran nurse who was recently fired from
her position at
Indiana University Health Goshen Hospital (IUHGH) for refusing to get a flu shot, to
ABC News. "For 21 years, I have religiously not taken the flu vaccine, and now you're telling me that I believe in it."
Hoover
added that she has only called in sick four or five times at most
during her entire two-decade career at the hospital because she was
almost always healthy, despite never having gotten a
flu shot. According to
ABC News,
Hoover wore black on her last day of employment with the hospital as a
sign of "mourning" -- Hoover's 22-year anniversary at the hospital would
have been this February.
Several of Hoover's coworkers, who were
all well-aware of the flu shot mandate, told reporters they were
shocked the hospital actually went through with the firings. Fellow
nurse Kacy Davis says she was "horrified" to learn that Hoover was
fired for refusing the shot, and that Hoover was well-liked and was always a
great mentor and friend to many of the other nurses with whom she
worked.
Firing healthcare workers for refusing flu shots is against the lawAfter
first learning about the flu shot mandate at IUHGH back in September
when it was announced, Hoover says she filed two medical exemptions, a
religious exemption, and two appeals to avoid having to take the shot.
But each of these proper legal protections was ignored by the hospital,
which openly sidestepped the law and heavy-handedly told Hoover she
would have to get the shot or else be fired.
Though many people
are still unaware of it, every U.S. state has laws on the books that
protect individuals from being coerced into taking vaccines or any other
medicine as a condition for employment or education. In Indiana,
individuals can gain exemption from vaccines for both medical and
religious reasons. (
http://www.nvic.org/Vaccine-Laws/state-vaccine-requirements.aspx)
Title
VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also prohibits employers from
discriminating against employees for religious reasons, which in this
case includes Hoover's religious exemption from the flu shot. This means
IUHGH flagrantly violated Hoover's civil rights, and that she now has a
legal case against the hospital for discriminating against her. (
http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/titlevii.cfm)
"If
your personal beliefs are religious in nature, then they are a
protected belief," says Alan Phillips, a North Carolina-based lawyer who
is representing several other nurses at the hospital.
According
to reports, there are at least 1,300 other healthcare workers just in
Indiana who have refused flu shots, and thus face illegal termination.
Source:-
http://www.naturalnews.com/038781_nurses_flu_vaccines_fired.html