Church fights Connecticut's vaccine mandate for students: 'They have overstepped their authority'
Milford Christian Church Pastor Jim Loomer on state refusing to allow religious exemptions to vaccines
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A Connecticut church is suing the state for allegedly breaching its First Amendment rights by no longer allowing parents' religious exemptions to vaccines.
The lawsuit comes after the state ordered Milford Christian Church to implement the vaccine mandate and expel students who refused to comply. The parish refused to force students in its pre-K program and K-12 Academy to be vaccinated.
The church claimed it violated its religious conscience to mandate the injections.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Milford Christian Church Pastor Jim Loomer joined "Fox & Friends" Wednesday to discuss the lawsuit and why the parish is taking action to protect students' medical freedom of choice.
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"We're going to take it until we win it," Loomer told Ainsley Earhardt. "We really feel as though the state has overstepped their authority. They're usurping the parent's authority in the children's lives."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Milford Christian Church is suing Connecticut over the state's school vaccine mandate affecting its pre-K and K-12 academy. (Fox61 WTIC)
"We feel like we need to resist what they're doing," he continued. "We're planning to continue to honor the religious exemptions, not based on state law, but based on conscience and upon principles of faith out of the Bible."
Connecticut previously informed Milford Christian Church "that they had a choice between compelling their students to vaccinate, expelling them if they didn't, or facing the forcible state closure," according to attorney Cameron Atkinson, who is representing the church.
"We're trying to protect our liberty to serve families whose conscience really doesn't always allow them to vaccinate their children," Loomer said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The state altered its law in 2021, which only permits individuals with medical-related exemptions from the vaccine mandate, which pertains to polio, measles, mumps, tetanus and other childhood shots.
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Loomer called the policy change an "injustice."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"But that religious exemption had been in place since 1959 during the polio epidemic, and so we thought that… the state revoking that was an injustice, really, to the people of faith in Connecticut," he said, adding that parents want the right to make the final decision for their kids.
Despite backlash, the office of the Connecticut attorney general defended the policy on public health grounds in a statement released on Tuesday.
"Vaccines save lives," the statement read. "The statute is lawful and necessary to protect public health. We have successfully defended multiple challenges to this statute and will continue to defend it."
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No state has mandated the COVID-19 vaccine for students. Only the District of Columbia has a mandate in place, according to National Academy for State Health Policy data.
Twenty-one states have banned COVID-19 student vaccine mandates for students.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News' Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report.