Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said Thursday that COVID-19 vaccines are developed using cells of “aborted children,” Politico reports.
Mr. Thomas’ dissenting
opinion came on a case in which the Supreme Court declined to hear a religious
liberty challenge to New York’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate from 16 health care
workers, according to Politico. The mandate requires all health care workers to
show proof of vaccination.
“They object
on religious grounds to all available COVID–19 vaccines because they were
developed using cell lines derived from aborted children,” Thomas said of the
petitioners, according to The Hill.
Politico
reported that none of the COVID-19 vaccines in the United States contain the
cells of aborted fetuses, adding that Cells obtained from elective abortions
decades ago were used in testing during the COVID vaccine development process,
a practice that is common in vaccine testing — including for the rubella and
chickenpox vaccinations.
A group of
doctors, nurses and other health care workers instituted the case suing the
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York in an objection to
the state’s vaccine mandate on religious grounds. The district court had issued
a preliminary injunction which the Court of Appeals reversed. On Thursday the Supreme
Court refused to hear the challenge.
The Court
left in place the lower court ruling rejecting petitioners’ claim that New York’s
mandate violates the First Amendment right against religious discrimination,
according to Politico. All health care workers were either fired, resigned,
lost hospital admitting privileges or decided to receive the vaccine, the
website said.
Other judges
who joined Thomas in his dissenting opinion are Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch who
are conservative judges.
“Because I
would address this issue now in the ordinary course, before the next crisis
forces us again to decide complex legal issues in an emergency posture, I
respectfully dissent,” Thomas writes, according to Politico.