“No governmental entity can compel any individual to receive a COVID 19 vaccine,” Abbott’s order read. Previously he had only banned mandates of vaccines not yet FDA approved.
On Wednesday, just two days after the entire Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed an executive order banning government-issued vaccine mandates in Texas.
The executive order expands on an earlier ruling that banned the mandating of vaccines under emergency authorization by the FDA.
"No governmental entity can compel any individual to receive a COVID-19 vaccine," the executive order read.
"State agencies and political subdivisions shall not adopt or enforce any order, ordinance, policy, regulation, rule, or similar measure that requires an individual to provide, as a condition of receiving any service or entering any place, documentation regarding the individual's vaccination status for any COVID-19 vaccine," the order continued.
The executive order also stated that "any public or private entity" receiving taxpayer funding "shall not require a consumer to provide, as a condition of receiving any service or entering any place, documentation regarding the consumer's vaccination status for any COVID-19 vaccine."
"No consumer may be denied entry to a facility financed in whole or in part by public funds for failure to provide documentation regarding the consumer's vaccination status for any COVID-19 vaccine," the order added.
Abbott also added that "I am also adding this issue to the agenda for the Second Called Session of the legislature that is currently convened so that the legislature has the opportunity to consider this issue through legislation."
"I will rescind this executive order upon the effective date of such legislation," the order noted.
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