Former General Hospital star Ingo Rademacher is suing ABC over its COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Rademacher, who played Jasper Jacks on the soap opera for 25 years, was dismissed from the show last month after refusing the vaccine. His co-star Steve Burton, who played the character of Jason Morgan, was also removed from the soap in late November.
Variety reports that Rademacher is suing on the grounds that the mandate is unconstitutional and religiously discriminates. The suit, which was filed on Monday, claims that the vaccine “should not be a political issue.”
“There is no need for everybody to get the COVID-19 shot, even if the president demands it,” it adds.
In an email to Disney’s HR department in October, Rademacher said he was “entitled to religious exemption”.
“On the basis of my deeply and sincerely held moral belief that my body is endowed by my creator,” he wrote. “With natural processes to protect me and that its natural integrity cannot ethically be violated by the administration of artificially created copies of genetic material, foreign to nature and experimental.”
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