WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 8 declined a case from a New York Catholic woman seeking to send her son to kindergarten without receiving the vaccines the state requires to attend public school.

In its rejection of the case, the high court did not offer an explanation for the decision, which is typical for rulings on the court’s emergency docket. 

All states require children to be vaccinated against certain diseases in order to attend public schools, although policies for religious or medical exemptions vary. Four states — California, Connecticut, Maine, and New York — only allow medical exemptions, according to KFF.

In court filings, Jane Doe identified herself as “a lifelong practicing Roman Catholic” and argued her religious beliefs prevent her from undergoing vaccination herself or allowing her son to be vaccinated.

“Defiling the blood by mixing it with the blood of animals, with the remains of aborted human beings, or with foreign biological material, violates God’s Word,” she wrote in a statement of her religious beliefs. “Vaccination injects biological material derived from unclean sources directly into the bloodstream. My faith forbids this.”

However, vaccines do not contain fetal cells. Some vaccines involve growing viruses in cell lines believed to be derived originally from unborn children aborted in the mid-20th century, such as the HEK-293 fetal cell line. A host of common medications, such as over-the-counter pain relievers and antacids, have also been tested against this cell line. These cell lines are still ongoing, and filtration processes prevent any material from those lines from entering the vaccine itself. 

Catholic teaching backs vaccine use

The Catholic Church has also consistently stated that Catholics may undergo vaccination despite remote degrees of connection to such cell lines where alternatives are not available. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Catholic bishops in the U.S. generally encouraged Catholics, where they had such a choice, to seek some brands of vaccines over others due to the varying degrees of remote connection to those cell lines.

Doe’s attorneys also stated that she faced “imminent forced relocation” to Florida without an exception.

In August, the Catholic bishops of Florida issued a staunch defense of their ability to determine policies for Catholic schools after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sent them a letter demanding that Catholic schools in the Sunshine State adopt religious exemptions to vaccine requirements or risk their ability to participate in the state’s school voucher program.

Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.