By Barbara Loe Fisher
From flash to bang, it took the politically powerful corporate, medical trade, and government lobbyists just six months this year to gut the human right to informed consent to medical risk taking and the civil right to a school education in California.
They did it by enacting a new law (SB 277) signed by Governor Jerry Brown on June 29, 2015 that denies parents the legal right to file a personal belief exemption to vaccination for religious and conscientious beliefs so their children can attend school.
In order to sign the bill into law, Governor Brown had to abandon his long-standing legislative record as a champion of parental and religious rights and school education.
NVIC called him out in a July 1, 2015 letter for failing to protect California families from segregation and discrimination based on vaccination and health care choices that parents make in the best interest of their minor children. Click here to read NVIC’s July 1, 2015 press release.
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Consistently throughout the legislative process, the numbers of California citizens testifying in opposition to the oppressive bill vastly outnumbered those testifying in support.
The ramming of SB 277 through the California legislature despite strong public opposition was an impressive demonstration of the brute power that can be wielded by the public-private partnership between government and industry dominating the U.S. health care system in the 21st century.
Disinformation about the measles outbreak at Disneyland1 and vaccine safety and effectiveness was used by mainstream media outlets to forward the forced vaccination agenda in the legislature in an attempt to neutralize the growing number of citizens standing up and defending their human and civil rights in our nation’s largest state.
Even though thousands of men, women, and children from all walks of life came again and again to Sacramento this year to attend public rallies and testify against SB 277 in Senate and Assembly committee hearings, the Senate voted 25 to 10 and the Assembly voted 46 to 30 to approve the legislation after contentious floor debates.
Waking a Sleeping Giant
During the six months the bill was making its way through the legislative process, many new grassroots groups focusing on health and medical freedom issues were formed in the state with a common goal of opposing SB 277.
A longtime Sacramento lobbyist commented that he had not seen so many citizens packing the halls of the state Capitol for hours to testify and hold protests on the Capitol grounds since the Vietnam War. Another observer commented that the forced vaccination bill had awakened “a sleeping giant.”
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California now becomes one of only three states, along with West Virginia and Mississippi, that denies children entry to daycare and school unless they get dozens of doses of federally recommended vaccines or a medical doctor grants a medical vaccine exemption — an exemption that doctors deny to 99.99 percent of children under narrow federal guidelines.2
Parents who do not comply with the new law will have to homeschool their children and, if they cannot homeschool for financial or other reasons, they may be subject to truancy laws that include fines and imprisonment for failing to provide their children with an education.
Incremental Steps on the Road to Medical Tyranny
In truth, the road to medical tyranny in California began in 2012. That was the year that the same pediatrician-turned politician and medical trade groups lobbied the legislature to pass AB 2109,3 a bill to force parents to get a signature from a medical doctor or state designated medical worker affirming the parent had been “educated” about vaccination before filing a personal belief vaccine exemption.
NVIC opposed that bill because we knew it was an incremental step toward ramming a forced vaccination law like SB 277 through the legislature down the line, which is exactly what was done.
Citizens Push Back and Win in Other States
Vaccine use recommendations are made by federal health agencies and medical trade groups but vaccine mandates are state laws. More than 100 bills were introduced in multiple states this year to restrict or eliminate non-medical vaccine exemptions or add more vaccine mandates. The majority did not succeed.
In Texas alone, more than 20 vaccine-related bills were defeated because families across the state stood up and successfully defended their informed consent and civil rights.
Although California has lost, temporarily at least, the personal belief vaccine exemption and Vermont lost the philosophical belief exemption (while retaining one for religious beliefs), citizens fought for their informed consent rights by educating their legislators and blocked bills in Washington, Oregon, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maine, and other states. Suicide Pact: The Radi... Best Price: $0.25 Buy New $2.84 (as of 04:15 UTC - Details)
The Final Wake-Up Call
What happened in California in 2015 is America’s final wake-up call. Forced vaccination bills like SB 277 that seek to eliminate all non-medical exemptions are eventually going to be introduced in every state and they will not be limited to school aged children.
Adults will be targeted, too, as government health officials, industry, and medical trade groups advocate for more societal sanctions that include loss of medical care and employment to be applied to those declining to get every federally recommended vaccine.
What is at stake? If the state can tag, track down, and force us against our will to be injected with biologicals of known and unknown toxicity today, there will be no limit on which individual freedoms the state can take away in the name of the greater good tomorrow.
Please get involved and actively participate in our democracy. If we do not take freedom for granted, we can reclaim and protect our human and civil rights in California and every state in America.
- Forward this article to your family and friends.
- Sign up for the free online NVIC Advocacy Portal and educate your elected officials about protecting the human right to informed consent to medical risk taking and the civil right to a school education, medical care and employment.
- Read and post stories of vaccine risk, failure, and harassment, and access well-referenced information on vaccines and infectious diseases on NVIC’s website.
- Become an NVIC Facebook fan.
- Make NVIC one of your favorite charities and please donate today. Swords Into Plowshares... Best Price: $4.00 Buy New $15.99 (as of 11:36 UTC - Details)
Protect Your Right to Informed Consent and Defend Vaccine Exemptions
With all the uncertainty surrounding the safety and efficacy of vaccines, it’s critical to protect your right to make independent health choices and exercise voluntary informed consent to vaccination. It is urgent that everyone in America stand up and fight to protect and expand vaccine informed consent protections in state public health and employment laws. The best way to do this is to get personally involved with your state legislators and educating the leaders in your community.
THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.
National vaccine policy recommendations are made at the federal level but vaccine laws are made at the state level. It is at the state level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights can have the greatest impact. It is critical for EVERYONE to get involved now in standing up for the legal right to make voluntary vaccine choices in America because those choices are being threatened by lobbyists representing drug companies, medical trade associations, and public health officials, who are trying to persuade legislators to strip all vaccine exemptions from public health laws.
Signing up for NVIC’s free Advocacy Portal at www.NVICAdvocacy.org gives you immediate, easy access to your own state legislators on your Smart Phone or computer so you can make your voice heard. You will be kept up-to-date on the latest state bills threatening your vaccine choice rights and get practical, useful information to help you become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community. Also, when national vaccine issues come up, you will have the up-to-date information and call to action items you need at your fingertips.
So please, as your first step, sign up for the NVIC Advocacy Portal.
Share Your Story with the Media and People You Know
If you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine reaction, injury, or death, please talk about it. If we don’t share information and experiences with one another, everybody feels alone and afraid to speak up. Write a letter Against the State: An ... Best Price: $5.02 Buy New $5.52 (as of 11:35 UTC - Details) to the editor if you have a different perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local newspaper. Make a call in to a radio talk show that is only presenting one side of the vaccine story.
I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might be strongly criticized for daring to talk about the “other side” of the vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not back down. Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be true about vaccination will the public conversation about vaccination open up so people are not afraid to talk about it.
We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations funded by drug companies or public health officials promoting forced use of a growing list of vaccines to dominate the conversation about vaccination. The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet and treated like nothing more than “statistically acceptable collateral damage” of national one-size-fits-all mandatory vaccination policies that put way too many people at risk for injury and death. We shouldn’t be treating people like guinea pigs instead of human beings.
Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More
I encourage you to visit the website of the non-profit charity, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), at www.NVIC.org:
- NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries, and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.
- If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.
- Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment and sanctions by doctors, employers, and school and health officials for making independent vaccine choices.
Connect with Your Doctor or Find a New One That Will Listen and Care
Vaccine Epidemic: How ... Best Price: $7.50 Buy New $12.99 (as of 06:30 UTC - Details) If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don’t want, I strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to stop the change in attitude of many parents about vaccinations after they become truly educated about health and vaccination.
However, there is hope.
At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit that they’re starting to adopt a more individualized approach to vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of parents. It is good news that there is a growing number of smart young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents in making personalized vaccine decisions for children, including delaying vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the same day or continuing to provide medical care for those families, who decline use of one or more vaccines.
So take the time to locate a doctor, who treats you with compassion and respect and is willing to work with you to do what is right for your child.
Sources and References