A former physician at Tufts Medical Center in Boston is suing her former employer, alleging she was wrongfully terminated after she refused the COVID-19 vaccine, The Boston Globe reported Oct. 10.
In her Oct. 10 filing, Theresa Gabana, MD, alleged that she was fired in December 2021 after Tufts Medicine rejected her request for a religious exemption to the hospital's vaccine requirement. Dr. Gabana, who worked at Tufts for nearly 30 years, seeks $5 million in compensation as well as another $1 million in punitive damages, according to the lawsuit,
In a statement to the Globe, the hospital declined to comment on the pending litigation, but said that the COVID-19 vaccine has been "vital" in mitigating the impact of the virus.
At the time of Dr. Gabana's firing, most healthcare workers in the state were not required by state law to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Tufts was among other hospitals in Massachusetts that implemented their own vaccination policies.
According to the filing, Dr. Gabana is a "practicing Christian" and applied for religious accommodation to Tuft's policy in September 2021. Her objections centered around concerns that the vaccines were "developed with or tested upon aborted fetal line cells," and therefore a "violation" of her faith.
During early development of some of the COVID-19 vaccines available in the U.S., researched reproduced cells that were originally obtained from elective abortions, but none of the three approved or authorized vaccines contain aborted fetal cells.
According to Dr. Gabana's attorney, Richard Chambers, the suit takes issue with the discrimination against his client's beliefs, rather than the efficacy or safety of the vaccine. He alleges that instead of rejecting the exemption on the basis that it would cause "undue hardship" for hospital operations, it rejected the exemption on the validity of his client's beliefs.