'General Hospital' Crew Members Sue ABC Over Vaccine Mandates

Two former General Hospital crew members have sued ABC for being fired because they weren't vaccinated. Jim Wahl and Timothy Wahl claim the Disney-owned network wrongfully terminated them after being fired for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19. 

The 14-year construction and special effects department boss and his 10-year crew member son allege in the suit obtained by Deadline that ABC's actions violate their rights under state law and "constitute religious discrimination." The company formally denied the plaintiffs' requests for religious exemptions to the Covid Vaccine Mandate on Nov. 9, 2021, according to a complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court for wrongful termination and four other claims.

"It gave no reason for its decision, except to say that the company was 'unable to conclude that you are prevented from receiving the Covid-19 vaccine due to a sincerely-held religious belief, practice, or observance,'" the filing states. Calling the network's vaccine mandate "unconstitutional," the complaint continues, "ABC does not have the authority to force a medical treatment on its employees against their will. Even if it did, it must offer religious exemptions to anybody who requests one."

"It cannot discriminate among religions and cannot second-guess the sincerity of one's religious beliefs without an objective basis for doing so," add the documents prepared by attorneys Scott J. Street, John W. Howard and Michelle Volk. "It did not have one here. ABC's actions constitute religious discrimination and violate Plaintiffs' rights under state law."

The Wahls' lawsuit focuses heavily on downplaying the vaccine's role in reducing the spread of COVID-19. It questions the need to vaccinate, given that people can still contract the virus."This should not be a political issue," the lawsuit reads. "There is no need for everybody to get the Covid-19 shot, especially since the shots do not prevent infection."

This is not the first case from General Hospital personnel against vaccine mandates. General Hospital star Steve Burton confirmed in November 2021 that he was fired from the daytime soap opera for refusing to comply with the show's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Ingo Rademacher sued the network in December 2021 after being denied a religious exemption. He played the role of Jasper "Jax" Jacks in the show for nearly 25 years.

"I am entitled to a religious exemption against mandatory vaccination for COVID-19 on the basis of my deeply and sincerely held moral belief that my body is endowed by my creator with natural processes to protect me and that its natural integrity cannot ethically be violated by the administration of artificially created copies of genetic material, foreign to nature and experimental," wrote Rademacher in an e-mail to Disney's HR department. Rademacher's case is scheduled for trial on Feb. 27, 2023.