Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) co-sponsored legislation that would punish educational institutions and agencies that don’t provide students with religious exemptions for vaccines.
The Guaranteeing Religious Accommodation in Childhood Education (GRACE) Act would withhold federal funds from these entities.
In the bill, the GRACE Act would not require students or their families to submit any documentation regarding their claims for religious exemptions to vaccines. Students or their families would only have to assert “that receiving the vaccination would violate a sincerely held religious belief.”
Representative Greg Steube (R-FL-17) introduced this piece of legislation last week.
“Freedom of speech and religion is the most sacred right guaranteed under our Constitution,” Steube stated. “No student or their family should ever be coerced into sacrificing their faith or jumping through loopholes to comply with a vaccine requirement.”
Including Ogles and Steube, 12 other Republicans sponsored this piece of legislation: Representatives Mary Miller (R-IA-01), Dan Webster (R-FL-11), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL-13), Paul Gosar (R-AZ-09), Barry Moore (R-AL-01), Lauren Boebert (R-CO-04), Glenn Grothman (R-WI-06), Nancy Mace (R-SC-01), Thomas Massie (R-KY-04), Randy Weber (R-TX-14), Rich McCormick (R-GA-06), Pat Harrigan (R-NC-10), and Troy Downing (R-MT-02).
In addition to these representatives, more than 50 organizations have thrown their support behind this bill, including Moms for Liberty, the Global Wellness Forum, Guiding the Impact, and Children’s Health Defense.
Cait Corrigan, an advocate for religious and medical freedom, stated children should not be “denied the right to an education or equal opportunity because of their parents’ faith.”
“To Make America Great Again, we must stand unwaveringly in defense of parental rights, religious freedom, and equal access to education for every family — and that begins with Congress passing the GRACE Act,” she explained.
Mary Holland, Children’s Health Defense President, noted four states in America don’t allow for religious exemptions for vaccines: California, New York, Maine, and Connecticut.
“This Act provides incentive for these outlier states to join with the other 46 to protect the most vital right under the First Amendment of the US Constitution,” she stated.
For Ogles, this is the third piece of legislation this year that he has co-sponsored related to vaccines.
In July, he co-sponsored the End the Vaccine Carveout Act. This bill would eliminate liability shields for vaccine manufacturers.
The other bill Ogles co-sponsored in April was the No Vaccine Mandates in Higher Education Act, which would withhold federal funds from colleges or universities that mandate the COVID-19 vaccine.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at [email protected].
And where are the rest of the Republicans from Tennessee?? Why have they not put there names on this bill??? Remember this is an election year.