FIRST ON FOX: House Republicans are urging President Donald Trump to use his executive power to block hospitals from denying organ transplants for people not vaccinated against COVID-19.
Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, who is leading the letter alongside Rep. Erin Houchin, R-Ind., said he was partially moved to act after Vice President JD Vance’s 12-year-old relative was reportedly denied a heart transplant over her COVID-19 vaccination status.
“Over the past week, it has come to light that multiple desperate Americans have been denied life-saving organ transplants due to their COVID-19 vaccination status,” the letter said. “This outrageous denial of care has affected some of our most vulnerable citizens – including a child from Indiana and a veteran from Ohio.”
Houchin told Fox News Digital, “Patients – especially children – should never be turned away from care due to government-imposed mandates. This effort urges President Trump to take action to ensure no hospital or transplant center can discriminate against patients based on their decision to decline the COVID-19 vaccine.”
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Earlier this month, he and Houchin introduced a bill to stop federal funds from going to any entity that denies someone treatment based on COVID-19 vaccination status.
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“President Trump has done such a great job recently on executive orders,” Rulli told Fox News Digital in an interview. “And I am asking President Trump if he sees this, to please do an executive order… because you could save someone’s life today.”
“The timing is everything. If we don’t get this done, people’s lives could be at risk.”
The letter, signed by Rulli, Houchin and five other House Republicans, cited Trump’s executive orders ending COVID-19 vaccine mandates in schools and reinstating military service members who were discharged for not getting the vaccine.
The letter is led by Rep. Michael Rulli.
“The same principles apply here. These reckless mandates, implemented under the Biden Administration, do more harm than good,” the letter said.
“With your leadership, our nation could return to a time when our brave and talented medical professionals can save lives freely, unburdened by bureaucratic barriers that endanger our most vulnerable citizens.”
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The girl’s mother, Jeneen Deal, told the Daily Mail that giving her daughter the vaccine would violate the family’s religious beliefs.
When reached for comment on the lawmakers’ letter by Fox News Digital via Facebook Messenger, Deal beseeched them to include the influenza vaccine in their request to Trump.
“Just removing the covid is just a start. The flu and covid are keeping her from being on the list,” Deal wrote.
She also made a public plea for federal lawmakers to work on a national version of a bill in the Ohio legislature that would block hospitals from turning away patients based on any medical intervention on religious or other conscientious grounds.
Deal gave a copy of the bill to Houchin, according to Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom.
Vance said in comments to the Daily Mail that he would try to help.
“I guess it’s been circulating on social media, but I was made aware of a couple days ago, and we’re trying to dig in and trying to help, obviously, as much as possible,” he said.
Fox News Digital reached out to spokespeople for Trump and Vance for comment, but did not hear back.
Original article source: Trump urged to use executive power after Vance relative reportedly denied organ transplant over COVID vaccine
