- (CNSNews.com) - Two Catholic women in Arkansas are suing
the state, claiming their religious freedom is being violated because of
a program that mandates vaccinations for their children.
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- Shannon Law, of Little Rock, wants her three children
exempted from the chicken pox vaccine, because, she says, the vaccine is
derived from "aborted fetuses." Susan Brock, of Royal, is suing
to prevent her four children from being vaccinated against Hepatitis-B
because, she says, she does not want to give the impression her children
are sexually promiscuous or drug users -- two of the primary ways Hepatitis
B is spread.
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- The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Little
Rock. As the legal case unfolds, none of the children has yet been
vaccinated.
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- The controversy began when Arkansas health officials
denied exemptions to the women, despite a state law that allows parents
to opt out of vaccination programs if they can show doctrinal proof that
their "recognized" church opposes the immunizations.
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- Law attempted to show just that, according to her lawyer,
Erik Stanley, with the Liberty Counsel.
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- Law sent Arkansas officials excerpts from Catholic
catechism
as well as statements from priests. One of those came from a priest at
the Vatican, who, according to Stanley, "backed her up, saying that
while there is no explicit Catholic doctrine that says Catholics are
opposed
to the chicken pox vaccination, she logically derived from the Catholic
teaching that she should be opposed to chicken pox immunization because
it is derived from aborted fetuses."
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- In denying Law the exemption, Arkansas' Department of
Health "cited some sort of study from some committee that the Denver
Archbishop had created, saying there was no problem with the chicken pox
vaccination," Stanley said.
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- Reginald Rogers, deputy general counsel for the Arkansas
Department of Health, said that while the vaccines were originally
developed
using aborted fetuses, that is no longer the case.
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- "What I understand is that you don't use the same
materials. It is derived through cultures over and over and over
again,"
Rogers said.
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- He added that, "the Vatican has not taken a position
on this issue of using a derived cell structure from an aborted
fetus."
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- "We're not getting into a theological debate. We
were only pointing out that [Law's] view of what the church said didn't
match with what we had received information on," Rogers said.
"Most
moralists agree that there is not a problem with using that because you
are not using the original aborted fetus. This is several generations of
cell development."
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- Stanley is also representing Brock, who was denied an
exemption from the Arkansas Department of Health when she sought to have
her children spared from the Hepatitis-B vaccine.
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- "This shows that it is happening to more than one
person, this is not an isolated incident," Stanley said. "I think
it is just a matter of time before people begin realizing what is in these
vaccinations and start objecting to them. This violates people's religious
beliefs."
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- Last month, the Oravax/Acambis Corporation was awarded
a federal contract to develop a new smallpox vaccine. The company has
proposed
to the Centers for Disease Control and the Federal Drug Administration
the use of "human fibroblasts," or parts of aborted fetuses in
the smallpox vaccinations.
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- Link
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