U.S. military members have the right to pursue a religious exemption for a vaccine through a process that includes input from their commander, chaplain, medical provider and legal advisors — and in most cases, the law has upheld that right.
Archbishop Paul D. Etienne claimed that 'it is not our place to sign any exemptions based on personal conscience. That is between each individual and their employer.'
‘We support any Catholic who has come to this conviction in seeking religious exemption from any Covid-19 requirement,’ Bishop Donald E. DeGrood of Sioux Falls and Bishop Peter M. Muhich of Rapid City wrote last week.
The bills would either eliminate the religious exemption or else make the exemption much harder to obtain by incentivizing institutions to reject students who seek religious exemptions, allowing minors to get vaccines without parental approval, and letting schools make up their own vaccine requirements.