Our team and SO MANY others have been advocating for baby August and his family today. This story is heartbreaking. This 7-month-old baby needs life-saving surgery NOW and he is being refused by Vanderbilt and TN Donor Services because he is unvaccinated. This year, we ran SB2151 (http://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.aspx?BillNumber=SB2151) to keep situations like this from happening. Had the bill passed, it would have been discriminatory by law to deny any individual healthcare services because of their vaccination status. But the Senate Judiciary Committee killed the bill in committee. Not only did the bill die, but representatives from the Governor's office and the TN Dept of Health showed up in committee to testify against the bill. Here is the video of that testimony (https://tnga.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=610&clip_id=26683&meta_id=661325) I want to be extremely CLEAR. 1. Passing SB2151 would have required Vanderbilt to provide life-saving surgery to August regardless of his vaccination status. 2. Governor Bill Lee is directly responsible for killing this bill. No votes in the committee were Mike Bell, Todd Gardenhire, Sara Kyle, London Lamar, John Lundberg, Paul Rose, and John Stevens. If August dies, these men and women have the blood of a 7-month-old baby boy on their hands. Please hear me. This is why we fight so hard to protect individual liberties, human rights, God-given rights as secured by our Constitution. Protecting these rights is not just about choice and saving jobs. Sometimes, protecting these rights is a matter of life and death. All we can do now is create public pressure on Vanderbilt to do the right thing, and PRAY. |
