This message went from my hand to the office of the Governor of California today, and a similar version will go to his wife, Jennifer Seibel Newsom, who is a fierce advocate of women’s rights, as well as for crafting healthier perceptions of femininity and masculinity in modern society. Regardless of your stance, experiences, opinion, or level of expertise on vaccine policy, I would like to ask everyone who reads this to think carefully about whether you appreciate the right to bodily autonomy. Is mandating medical procedures on a massive one-size-fits-all scale, without exception, exemption or individual choice, really a direction we want to take? Do we really want to give such intimate decisions – decisions that directly penetrate our blood, tissues, organs and brain – to universally corrupt government institutions? If you are a voter in California, make sure you understand the implications of SB276; act now. If you reside in other states and countries, make yourself aware of similar movements in your neighborhood. You may have to dig a little, but they’re there.
Dear Governor Newsom,
SB276 is a very serious violation of doctor-patient privilege, women’s rights, children’s rights, the right to bodily sovereignty, and ultimately human rights.
That each parent’s testimony regarding their experience and observations with vaccines given to their children is not officially tracked as part of the “settled science” is unconscionable.
That the testimony of each health care provider who has stepped forward, putting his or her career at risk to advocate for vaccine-injured children and vulnerable children, is being plainly disregarded, is unconscionable.
The aggression with which parents - mostly mothers - have been rudely and dismissively smacked down in doctors’ offices and in public when bringing our concerns, questions, and testimony to healthcare providers and to public conversations regarding vaccines is a not-so-subtle form of systemized misogyny.
Real science is never settled. Therefore, reasonable access to exemptions, free of policy standards and other manipulations that interfere with the integrity of sound medical judgement and doctor-patient privilege, must be fiercely protected.
I urge you to veto SB276 without delay.