During debate on the House floor on the amendment to the Health Care Conscience Act that would keep the law from being used as a loophole for those who resist COVID mandates, Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Westmont) argued that "government is supposed to persuade. Not force."
“Government is supposed to respect and protect our civil liberties,” Mazzochi continued. “Not disregard them. And that is because we are citizens, not subjects. If we are going to say there are healthcare services that are so important that we need to mandate them, spit it out. Say it plainly and enact it into law using the regular legislative process and then every single one of us can be accountable to the people in our districts for the vote that we took.”
Mazzochi said COVID vaccine mandates are different from previous vaccine mandates because they were "passed by the legislature after years of scientific proof of beneficial outcome and they all still allow for religious exemption or proof of immunity to satisfy the statute."
She also offered various scientific approaches the government can take to gain the trust of the general public for the vaccine, including using congregate-care facilities to “test everyone.”
“This legislation is designed to lead to absurd results where you can let an employer or any person employed by any unit of government in the state of illinois force a person to do things even your doctor thinks is medically contraindicated, wrong or harmful. And tonight your yes vote means you’ve denied them a remedial claim,” she said, urging a no vote.
The amendment passed the House with 64 yes votes, 52 no votes and 2 voting present, it passed the Senate with 31 yes votes and 24 no votes. Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the bill into law on Nov. 8. The bill goes into effect on June 1, 2022.
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