Nurse says hospital revoked her religious exemption to COVID-19 vaccine mandate
A Virginia hospital has been accused of denying a Christian nurse a religious exemption to its COVID-19 vaccine mandate even though she claims to have been given a permanent exemption last year.
Julia Brenton, a registered nurse who works as a unit supervisor on the postpartum unit at Inova Loudoun Hospital in Leesburg, was told in an email on Monday that she had to get vaccinated by June 20 or be fired.
Brenton told The Christian Post that she opposes getting a COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds because the vaccines were developed through testing on cells derived from aborted fetuses.
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Brenton applied for an exemption in July 2021, submitting a letter in which she quoted 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God?...Therefore honor God with your body."
"According to Divine Law, and my religious beliefs, anything that is injected into the body goes against my religious freedom," she wrote last year, sharing a copy of the letter with CP.
Brenton, who has worked as a nurse for over 10 years, also included a letter from Pastor Perry Darley of Called By Grace Ministries. In the letter, Darley said he recently spoke with her and that she "believes the vaccine mandate violates those values she holds dear," including "the right to life."
Inova's official guidelines on COVID-19 vaccination state that religious exemptions are granted "only when sincerely held religious beliefs conflict with Inova's immunization policy." The guidelines include an option to provide a "note from a religious leader" that "may describe with specificity the sincerely held religious belief, practice or observance that guides the objection to immunization."
Inova's guidelines also state that a religious exemption would "not be granted when opposition to the immunization is medical, scientific, political, philosophical, ethical, or otherwise secular rather than religious in nature."
Brenton forwarded CP an email from Aug. 10, 2021, from Inova's official exemption requests email address showing that she was granted a permanent exemption from the vaccine and would not have to reapply.
Despite the email from last year promising a permanent exemption, Brenton said she was told in March that she had to reapply for the vaccine exemption.
She claims she waited 10 weeks for a response. She added that the wait was "stressful" because she was "wondering if I would have a job soon" due to the vaccine mandate. Then on Monday, her request was denied.
In an email she forwarded to CP, Inova's Vaccine Exemption Request Committee argued that Brenton failed to meet their standards for exemption and that her being unvaccinated would place an undue burden on the operations of the hospital.
Brenton said there are "many other healthcare workers who were approved and then denied" a religious exemption to the Inova COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Inova instituted its COVID-19 vaccine mandate last September, requiring "all rotating residents and fellows to be vaccinated for COVID-19 in order to rotate at any Inova facility."
CP reached out to Inova for comment on Brenton's claims. Spokesperson Tracy Connell emailed a statement stating that Inova "welcomes requests for medical or religious exemptions from team members."
"Members of Inova's chaplaincy team assist in review of religious exemption requests alongside a clinical and multi-disciplinary review team," read the statement.
"We will continue to review and update our approach to keeping our team members and patients safe during this public health crisis and our policies will evolve as relevant facts and circumstances warrant."
Connell added that Inova seeks "to create an environment of zero harm and embraces and practices best evidence."
"As we continue to learn more about COVID-19 and its many variants, we strongly believe that the safest environment for our team members and patients is one where everyone is fully vaccinated," continued the statement.
Several lawsuits have been filed by those who are religiously opposed to getting the vaccines but are compelled to via vaccine mandates.
In New York, a group of Christian healthcare workers sued to stop New York's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. Last October, a federal judge issued an order temporarily halting enforcement of the order against thousands of unvaccinated healthcare workers who had applied for religious exemptions.
The district court's order was vacated by the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. In December, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected requests to block New York's healthcare vaccination mandate.
A group of U.S. Navy personnel sued the U.S. Department of Defense and other government officials after their religious exemption requests were denied.
In late March, U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor, a George W. Bush appointee, expanded an earlier preliminary injunction on behalf of the Navy personnel to the over 4,000 Navy service members who have requested a religious exemption.
"Plaintiffs decided to pursue a class action on behalf of 4,095 Navy servicemembers who have filed religious accommodation requests," wrote O'Connor in his order.
"Here, the potential class members have suffered the 'same injury,' arising from violations of their constitutional rights. Each has submitted a religious accommodation request, and each has had his request denied, delayed, or dismissed on appeal."
In May, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., wrote a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro. Lankford stated the Navy had approved 27 religious accommodation requests for the COVID-19 vaccines despite receiving over 4,300 requests. Lankford noted, "84 personnel with previously disapproved religious accommodation requests have completed the discharge process."
Lankford argued that in light of O'Connor's order, the Department of Defense should "apply its stated policy of protecting sailors from separation and discipline retroactively," noting that the Navy had paused efforts to "separate and discipline sailors refusing the COVID-19 vaccine due to religious objections."
"As I have said repeatedly, it is difficult to see how removing hundreds of sailors from the Navy — when almost half of Americans have already been infected with COVID-19 — improves our military readiness and serves the national interest," Lankford wrote.
