(Article by Ashley Sadler republished from LifeSiteNews.com)
Dr. Erika Smith, who is the Dean of Academic Services at Brandeis, and formerly an adjunct lecturer in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, said that "those who love freedom must act before it’s too late."
House Bill 248 states that Ohioans may decline to receive the jab as long as they submit a written statement or verbally declare that they decline to be vaccinated.
The bill further clarifies that "When declining the vaccination, the individual… shall not be required to do anything beyond submitting the written statement or making the verbal declaration described in this section."
"Current disparate treatment runs rife across this nation, spreading like wildfire, demanding in exchange for job security and participation in society the injection of medical treatments that are devoid of both FDA approval and legal recourse when damaging side effects occur, is draconian at best and criminal at worst," Smith said.
Known as the Vaccine Choice & Anti-Discrimination Act, HB 248 was introduced April 6 2021 by State Rep. Jennifer Gross (R-West Chester).
"This is a matter of freedom," Gross said in a press release.
"Without the exemption provisions this bill provides, the notion of a vaccine passport could easily lead to a class system in Ohio where segregation and discrimination will proliferate."
Dr. Smith said she worries that vaccine mandates would result in a "two-tier society," one in which citizens are required to provide proof of vaccination in order to simply participate in normal activities.
This, she warned, would create an apartheid state, with citizens divided by vaccination status.
"The idea of mandatory vaccinations for people to keep their jobs smacks of the same abuse that legislators have historically used against whatever people group they perceive to be inferior," she said. "Forced vaccinations, medical passports, tracking and tracing, are all forms of medical apartheid."
During her testimony supporting HB 248 Smith shared that her paternal grandmother was born on a plantation in Alabama. Her parents fought for justice during the Civil Rights movement so that Smith would be free, with equal privileges under the law.
But mandatory jabs and a "show-your papers" culture requiring proof of vaccination would change that.
"Any student of history clearly sees the distinct parallels between segregation due to race and segregation due to vaccine status," Smith said.
"Today, citizens are fighting against the tyranny of government officials and the bullying from people in their daily lives who expect them to relinquish their God-given freedoms, upheld in the Constitution, to the state, and to obey mandates, mere words of men, which are not laws."
Representative Tom Young (R) District 42-Dayton, responded favorably to Smith’s testimony. "You are spot-on about what this bill is," he said. "It’s a freedom bill."
Read more at: LifeSiteNews.com