Oklahoma Attorney General Joins Suit Over Health Vaccine Mandate

Oklahoma is among 12 state attorneys general filing a federal lawsuit over the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates for health care workers.

Attorney General John O’Connor said Nov. 16 that Oklahoma has a shortage of nurses as it was, and the mandate would worsen the situation.

“I will not tolerate the Biden administration threatening Oklahoma healthcare workers with their jobs after they have fearlessly braved the pandemic,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor has also sued Ascension Healthcare over its vaccine mandate for employees in the Tulsa area and said Ascension was violating a state judge’s Friday order restraining the mandate.

O’Connor said he sent the company a cease-and-desist letter, telling it to reinstate employees who were suspended or fired after seeking religious exemptions to the vaccinations.

“It appears that Ascension is determined to trample on the sincerely held religious beliefs of the healthcare heroes it employs,” O’Connor said.

Ascension has moved the case to federal court. Company representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

O’Connor previously joined more than a dozen other states in a Nov. 4 lawsuit that challenged a COVID-19 vaccination or testing requirement at all private employers of 100 workers or more.