The Montana legislature passed a bill this week that prohibits employers from requiring their employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The bill bars employers from denying employment, educational opportunities and other services based on vaccination status or whether someone has a vaccine passport.
The bill now goes to Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) to sign.
“Up to now Montana employers have respected the fundamental, personal, medical and religious freedoms of Montanans,” Republican state senator Tom McGillvray, who presented the bill, said last week, according to the Associated Press.
“However, that’s not the case anymore,” he added. “There are employers … that are requiring and coercing employees to get vaccinations under threat of termination and intimidation.”
Some health care organizations voiced their opposition to the bill. Rich Rasmussen, president and CEO of the Montana Hospital Association, said the bill “unravels more than 50 years of medical science and expert guidance in protecting patients and health care workers from infectious diseases.”
The bill comes a week after the governor’s ban against vaccine passports in Montana. Several other states have also banned vaccine passports, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.
The conservative-led stats argue that vaccine passports are a violation of privacy. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said, “It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) noted after signing his state’s executive order against vaccine passports that, “As I have said all along, these vaccines are always voluntary and never forced.”
In contrast with legislation and executive actions against vaccine requirements by many conservative states, Democrat controlled states have failed to follow. Instead, some have extended mask mandates, such as New York, threatening that life will be slower to return to normal if more people don’t get vaccinated.
As COVID-19 numbers continue to drop nationwide, more people are moving back to normal life. Summer is near, and Americans will return to the highways and airlines for vacation and fun.
The last thing Americans need are more laws and restrictions telling us what to do. The nation has been locked down far too long. Vaccination or not, we’re moving forward.
Democrats cannot require vaccinations, no matter their views in claiming to follow the science. As long as our nations remains free, our right to privacy will stand above the government’s right to force vaccinations.
The Big Sky State has shown that when government leads well, it stands for the rights of its people. Maybe the Big Apple or even the White House could take a few lessons from Montana, allowing Americans to live free and move forward without government getting in their way.
I agree with Montana’s decision 100% no one should be forced into taking covid vacation! As long as this is free country, Government will not be telling me what to do. There sure going to try!!
I agree with the gov. I don’t understand the health orgs side of it though. Before I retired from the health field, we were required to have a yearly flu vax. No threats of termination, but if you declined, you would have to don a mask, gown and gloves for your shift. For the buisnesses making threats, they need to remember this is still America, not a facist state.
I AM A 72 YEAR OLD WOMAN. I AM HIGH RISK FOR COVID. I HAVE NOT HAD A COVID VACATIONATON AND WILL NOT GET IT. OUR FOFATHERS GAVE THIER LIVES FOR OUR GREAT COUNTRY TO BE A FREE COUNTRY, THE FREEST IN THE WORLD. I WILL NTOT TAKE THAT FREEDOM IN VAINE! MANY PEOPLE HAVE MOVED TO MONTANA BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T LIKE WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN THIER STATE. ” I SAY DO NOT BRING THE ANTI AMERICAN, ANTI COUNSTUTIONAL IDEAS TO OUR STATE THAT YOU LEFT BEHIND FROM WHERE YOU CAME FROM”. I LIVED IN MASS, CALIFORNIA AND ALMOST 50YRS. IN MONTANA. I HAVE SEEN WHAT HAVE HAPPENED IN THOSE OTHER STATES. MAY GOD BLESS THEM ALL AND HELP THEM SEE THE LIGHT!
I too am 72 and will not take the vaccine……….not afraid of anything that has a 99.98 % survival rate…….the regular flu is more dangerous……………has anyone noticed that for the first time in history no one has died from the flu this past winter?………..amazing huh…………
Good.
Malcolm X“The white liberal is the worst enemy to “America”, and the worst enemy to the black man”. The worst enemy that the Negro have is this white man that runs around here drooling at the mouth professing to love Negros, and calling himself a liberal, and it is following these white liberals that has perpetuated problems that Negros have. If the Negro wasn’t taken, tricked, or deceived by the white liberal then Negros would get together and solve our own problems. I only cite these things to show you that in America the history of the white liberal has been nothing but a series of trickery designed to make Negros think that the white liberal was going to solve our problems.
Finally someone speaks the truth.
I’ve always that that human was as guilty as the people he despised.. Although, We could agree on that statement if he’d have said all liberals in general. All liberals and democrats are poison to our Nation.
It is an individual choice no one has the right to fire or punish you for not taking this vaccine!
I’m a Montana native who transplaced myself 18 yrs ago for a job in CA. I’m retiring soon. I’m getting out of this politically atrocious hellhole ASAP. I don’t speak for everyone here, because there are some good, decent thinking folks here, but, by and large, the politics in this state Suck. Just look at this crazy, insane Governor that’s running this beautiful piece of our country into the ground…..and now Caitlyn wants his job. I’m Republican, and so is she/he, I guess. I can’t see myself wanting to vote for her/ him. Too strange, this whole idea. I want to go home where people were raised with values like mine. Gianforte is a good man, and banning this vaccine passport is the best thing he can do. Screw this administration and the communistic attitude that comes with it.
Right on, Montana! It’s a beautiful place, and it’s not called “Big Sky Country” for nothing! It tends to be largely underrated, but the growth potential there is nothing short of amazing!
Biden is the weakest so called leader I have ever seen or heard of! He keeps the fear going. The left acts like he’s God’s answer to
Covid cure. He’s not he’s just a Puppet On A String,!!
Obama’s pulling the Strings.