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(CNN) -
A federal judge temporarily allowed New York state health workers to have religious exemptions from the vaccination mandate, according to an order.
US District Judge David Hurd issued the sentence Tuesday, granting a preliminary injunction that allows health workers to submit religious exemptions to their employees to avoid getting vaccinated.
Hurd stated that the state Department of Health is "prohibited from interfering in any way in the granting of religious exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine onwards, or in the operation of exemptions already granted."
Hurd also prohibited the Department of Health from taking disciplinary or other action on the licenses, certifications, residency or other professional status of those healthcare workers who have applied for or obtained religious exemptions.
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CNN has reached out to Governor Kathy Hochul, the New York Department of Health and the New York Attorney General's Office, which were named as defendants in the lawsuit, for comment.
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Lawsuit by a group of health workers against the vaccination mandate
Seventeen healthcare workers, many of them unidentified doctors, residents, nurses and others, filed the lawsuit on Sept. 13 challenging the New York State Department of Health's vaccination mandate that did not allow religious exemptions.
The judge temporarily paused the order on September 14.
Health workers protesting the vaccination mandate did so because they opposed being forced to take vaccines using "fetal cell lines" from "induced abortions."
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A New York State health official confirmed in an affidavit as part of this case that fetal cell lines were used in the testing and production of current COVID-19 vaccines, according to the judge's order.
The Vatican has said that it is "morally acceptable to receive covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process."
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The state entities that were sued argued that their vaccination mandate for healthcare workers was necessary to control the continued spread of COVID-19, including the delta variant.
CNN has reached out to the plaintiffs' attorneys to comment on the sentence.
The preliminary injunction was granted as a temporary measure to allow the plaintiffs to continue arguing their cases.
Hurd said the question in the case is not whether the plaintiffs are entitled to religious exemptions, but rather, whether or not the state's vaccine mandate conflicts with "the federally protected right to seek religious accommodation" of their employers.
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