Once the exemption is approved, each agency has to evaluate whether the employee can still do the job with an accommodation while ensuring a safe workplace. Seven accommodations so far have been granted.
Inslee spokeswoman Tara Lee said the process “may help distinguish between a sincerely held personal belief and a sincerely held religious belief.”
In Arkansas, about 5% of the staff at the privately run Conway Regional Health System has requested religious or medical exemptions.
The hospital responded by sending employees a form that lists a multitude of common medicines — including Tylenol, Pepto-Bismol, Preparation H and Tums — that it said were developed or tested using fetal cell lines.
The form asks people to sign it and attest that “my sincerely held religious belief is consistent and true and I do not use or will not use” any of the listed medications.
In a statement, Conway Regional Health President and CEO Matt Troup said: “Staff who are sincere … should have no hesitancy with agreeing to the list of medicines listed.”
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By COLLEEN LONG and ANDREW DEMILLO Associated Press
Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Carla K. Johnson, Ricardo Alonzo-Zaldivar Sean Murphy, Stefanie Dazio, Brady McCombs and Rachel La Corte contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared at the Associated Press.
