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Texas Governor Greg Abbott (seen here Sept. 22) has issued an executive order banning private companies from enforcing COVID vaccine mandates. Joel Marinez / The Monitor hide subtitles via AP
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Joel Marinez / The Monitor via AP
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (seen here Sept. 22) has issued an executive order banning private companies from enforcing COVID vaccine mandates.
Joel Marinez / The Monitor via AP
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order on Monday banning corporations, including private companies, from enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate against workers and calling on state lawmakers to put a similar ban in place set.
The move comes as the Biden government enacts regulations requiring employers with more than 100 workers to be vaccinated or tested for the coronavirus weekly. Several large corporations, including Texas-based American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, have announced that they will abide by the federal mandate.
“No Texas company can compel a person, including an employee or consumer, to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine for any reason of personal conscience, religious belief, or medical reason, including prior vaccination contradicts. ” Recovery from COVID-19, “wrote Abbott on his order.
Abbott, who was previously vaccinated and later also tested positive for COVID-19, stated in his order that “vaccines are strongly recommended for those who are eligible, but must always be voluntary for Texans”.
Texas has seen a decline in newly reported COVID-19 cases and hospital stays recently. But a rising death toll from the recent surge from the Delta variant has seen the state rapidly approach 67,000 total deaths since the pandemic began in 2020.
The governor added the issue to the agenda for legislators to raise during the ongoing special session. Montana has passed law preventing employers from requiring workers to get vaccinations, and a number of states have explicitly stated that schools cannot require vaccinations.
Abbott had previously banned vaccine mandates from state and local government agencies, but until now had private companies set their own rules for their employees. It was not immediately clear whether Abbott’s latest executive order would face a quick judicial challenge.
Abbott’s new order also has political implications. The two-term Republican is pressured by two candidates in next year’s GOP primary, Former State Senator Don Huffines and Former Florida Congressman and Texas State Party Chairman Allen West have Abbott’s COVID-19 Politics attacked and decided against vaccine mandates.
“He knows which way the wind is blowing. He knows Conservative Republican voters are fed up with vaccination mandates and fed up with being a failed leader,” Huffines tweeted.
West recently tested positive for COVID-19. He was briefly hospitalized, but also tweeted that he was still speaking out against vaccine mandates. West announced on his social media accounts on Monday that he had returned home.
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