Abbott Issues New Executive Order On Vaccine Mandates In Texas

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Texas Governor Greg Abbott has issued a new executive order on the issue of vaccine mandates. The executive order issued on Wednesday afternoon prohibits any government entity in Texas from mandating that someone receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

The governor is also asking the Texas Legislature, which is currently in the middle of their second special session, to address whether any state or local governmental entities in the state of Texas can mandate that a person gets a COVID-19 vaccine. The governor is also asking the legislature to decide whether any exemptions should apply to such a mandate.

If the governor's executive order sounds familiar, it's because it is. The governor issued a similar executive order in the past. The change in this order is because the Pfizer vaccine has received official approval from the Food and Drug Administration this past Monday.

In the governor's old executive order, the order only covered vaccines that were under "emergency use authorization." Under this executive order, all vaccines, approved and emergency use, would not be allowed to be mandated. Governor Abbott's executive order also says that no private or public entity that is receiving public funds through any means can require a vaccine:

Any public or private entity that is receiving or will receive public funds through any means, including grants, contracts, loans, or other disbursements of taxpayer money, 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.

You can read the entire executive order here.