COLUMBUS, Ohio — The sponsor of the controversial anti-vax bill banning vaccine mandates is hoping to fast track the legislation.

State Rep. Jennifer Gross, R-West Chester, has a discharge petition circulating through the Statehouse to get House Bill 248 out of the committee process and onto the Ohio House floor for a full vote.

House Bill 248, also called the "Vaccine Choice and Anti-Discrimination Act," bans employers from requiring any vaccine, not just COVID-19, does not allow "discriminatory treatment" when it comes to vaccination status and forces schools to tell parents their kids don't have to get any shots.​

“I have been getting thousands of emails asking for vaccine freedom or medical freedom. I hear them and I feel like we as a House don’t hear them," Gross said. "It’s not about the vaccine. It’s not about COVID. It’s about freedom. We need to allow Ohioans to make their own educated choices and that includes our healthcare workers.”

So far, the petition has six signatures, all Republicans, including Gross and three committee chairs. It would need 50 to force an immediate vote.​ Gross said she expects another three or four signatures, but not the full 50.

Last week, House Speaker Robert Cupp, R-Lima, who said the bill would not get anymore committee hearings, sent a memo to his caucus telling them not to sign the petition.

Cupp did not respond to requests by Spectrum News for comment.

Health and business leaders, representing nearly two million Ohioans, said they are “gravely concerned” about the bill.

"The ways in which it ties our hands and the ways in which it would have impact on child immunization rates and child health in Ohio, I don't think we can even begin to imagine," said Sarah Kincaid, Vice President of the Ohio Children's Hospital Association.

Kincaid said if kids could not be forced to get their regular immunizations, it would compromise how hospitals normally operate.

"You could be requiring us to have to require everybody to wear masks until the end of time because you cannot discriminate as an employer, if this would become law, against somebody who is not vaccinated,” Kincaid said. “Which means, if somebody is not vaccinated during flu season, we cannot ask them to wear a mask. We cannot move them to a different area of the hospital away from someone who is immunocompromised. That is considered discriminatory action.”

Gross started the petition after President Joe Biden announced a nationwide vaccine mandate for companies with 100 or more employees. In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, who does not support House Bill 248, has not required anyone to get the shots.

If the petition were to get enough signatures to force a vote and it ultimately passed the House, Kincaid said OCHA and others would ask the Ohio Senate to reject it.