IOWA (LifeSiteNews) – Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa signed legislation over the weekend that allows workers to receive unemployment benefits if they are fired for choosing not to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, while also expanding medical and religious exemptions.
Signed on October 29, the bill requires employers to waive a vaccine requirement for employees who attest that “receiving the vaccine would be injurious to” their “health and well-being,” or that it “would conflict with the tenets and practices of [their] religion.”
Employees who do not qualify under these two exemptions will receive some financial protection if they are fired via unemployment benefits. Employers will not pay higher unemployment insurance costs for these fired employees.
“I am proud to sign this bipartisan piece of legislation today. This is a major step forward in protecting Iowans’ freedoms and their abilities to make healthcare decisions based on what’s best for themselves and their families,” Reynolds said in a statement. “This legislation also gives employees the assurance that they will still receive unemployment benefits despite being fired for standing up for their beliefs.”
“This is only the first step. We will be taking other legal actions against the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate,” Reynolds said.
People of goodwill can disagree about the safety, efficacy and religious implications of a new vaccine for the coronavirus.
But, everyone should agree on this point:
No government can force anyone who has reached legal adulthood to be vaccinated for the coronavirus. Equally, no government can vaccinate minors for the coronavirus against the will of their parents or guardians.
Please SIGN this urgent petition which urges policymakers at every level of government to reject calls for mandatory coronavirus vaccination.
Fear of a disease - which we know very little about, relative to other similar diseases - must not lead to knee-jerk reactions regarding public health, nor can it justify supporting the hidden agenda of governmental as well as non-governmental bodies that have apparent conflicts of interest in plans to restrict personal freedoms.
The so-called "public health experts" have gotten it wrong many times during the current crisis. We should not, therefore, allow their opinions to rush decision-makers into policies regarding vaccination.
And, while some people, like Bill Gates, may have a lot of money, his opinion and that of his NGO (the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) - namely, that life will not return to normal till people are widely vaccinated - should not be permitted to influence policy decisions on a coronavirus vaccination program.
Finally, we must also not allow the rush by pharmaceutical companies to produce a new coronavirus vaccine to, itself, become an imperative for vaccination.
Unwitting citizens must not be used as guinea pigs for New World Order ideologues, or Big Pharma, in pursuit of a vaccine (and, profits) which may not even protect against future mutated strains of the coronavirus.
And it goes without saying that the production of vaccines using aborted babies for cell replication is a total non-starter, as the technique is gravely immoral.
However, if after sufficient study of the issue, a person who has reached the age of majority wishes to be vaccinated with a morally produced vaccine, along with his children, that is his business.
But we cannot and will not permit the government to make that decision for us.
Thank you for SIGNING and SHARING this petition, urging policymakers at all levels of government to reject mandatory coronavirus vaccination.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Bill Gates: Life won’t go back to ‘normal’ until population 'widely vaccinated' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bill-gates-life-wont-go-back-to-normal-until-population-widely-vaccinated
COVID-19 scare leads to more digital surveillance, talk of mandatory vaccine 'tattoos' for kids' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/covid-19-scare-leads-to-more-digital-surveillance-talk-of-mandatory-vaccine-tattoos-for-kids
Trudeau says no return to ‘normal’ without vaccine: 'Could take 12 to 18 months' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/trudeau-says-no-return-to-normal-without-vaccine-could-take-12-to-18-months
Trudeau mulls making coronavirus vaccine mandatory for Canadians - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/trudeau-mulls-making-coronavirus-vaccine-mandatory-for-canadians
US bishop vows to ‘refuse’ COVID-19 vaccine if made from ‘aborted fetal tissue' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/us-bishop-vows-to-refuse-covid-19-vaccine-if-made-from-aborted-fetal-tissue
** While LifeSite opposes immorally-produced vaccines using aborted fetal cell lines, we do not have a position on any particular coronavirus vaccines produced without such moral problems. We realize many have general concerns about vaccines, but also recognize that millions of lives have been saved due to vaccines.
*** Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com
One of those actions include joining other Republican-led states in an October 29 federal challenge to the vaccine mandate for government employees.
“As long as I am governor, the State of Iowa will always stand alongside Iowans and to be sure their freedoms are protected,” Reynolds said in a separate statement.
A business lobby group in the Hawkeye State opposed the legislation because it creates a conflict with federal vaccine requirements.
“What is clear is that whichever path is taken it’ll be higher costs for Iowa employers,” JD Davis with the Iowa Association of Business and Industry said, according to a local news station.
His organization registered opposition to the vaccine exemption bill, according to lobbyist declarations on the legislature’s website.
The Board of Regents, which oversees education policy in the state, supported the legislation.
The state does not yet prohibit vaccine mandates, however.
Legislation proposed during the most recent session would have prohibited employers from refusing to hire people who have chosen not to take the COVID-19 shots or declined to show proof of immunity.
The same bill could be brought up again for debate when the next legislation session starts in January 2022.
Montana and Texas both have laws outlawing jab mandates by private companies.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he wants to sign legislation protecting workers from jab requirements in an upcoming session that begins November 15.
“Your right to earn a living should not be contingent on COVID shots,” DeSantis said.
“If someone was forced by their employer to receive a COVID vaccine and had an adverse reaction, that business should be liable since it wasn’t an individual choice,” the Republican governor said October 21.
“It’s not a free choice if you say ‘get a shot or lose your job’ … that’s not a free choice for a lot of people because their livelihood is hanging in the balance,” DeSantis said.
LifeSiteNews has produced an extensive COVID-19 vaccines resources page. View it here.