Vaccine Legislation: AB 2109–Why We Opposed
November 2012
Children do not belong to the state but to God, their Creator. God has firmly entrusted the authority and responsibility for children with their parents (not to governments, or other persons, or professionals, or any other entity) for making decisions regarding every part of their life, including their care, protection, education, and upbringing.
Exercising this authority and responsiblity requires having the freedom to do so. FPM’s mission in the Legislature is to defend this God-given freedom for parents to exercise their responsibility to educate, care for, direct, and protect their children.
Defending educational freedom will always be our first priority. In order to do this, we must stand in defense of all parental rights, the foundational principle undergirding educational freedoms. Parents’ God-given rights include the right to make decisions regarding their children’s medical treatment and “preventive” medical care. The right to make medical decisions is a vital area of parental authority, and one that has been under constant attack for many years now.
Our involvement with vaccines most recently has arisen from the battle over California’s recently passed AB 2109. AB 2109 will contribute to the further erosion of this country’s historic parental rights by further extending the scope of governmental authority into the decision-making that is the God-given responsibility of parents. AB 2109 addressed a much larger issue than just vaccines or even medical issues in general. It undermines the basic foundational parental right to make decisions in the raising of their children.
The most important reason that parents must have this authority is that it is the God-given authority and responsibility of parents to protect the lives and health of their children.
We are not condemning or endorsing all vaccines. We believe parents should look at good information on both sides of any decision regarding medical care. Our website currently contains links to both the Center for Disease Control website www.cdc.gov and the National Vaccine Information Center website www.nvic.org that together touch on the risks of particular communicable diseases as well as the risks of specific vaccinations.
Within the medical community, there are divided opinions on whether particular vaccines are more harmful than helpful. This is not always apparent, given the strong influence that vaccine makers and some of the medical associations have, with primarily only one side of the issue being heard. That, of course, is their prerogative, but parents need to be aware of this.
During the battle over AB 2109, the bill’s author, a physician, refused to engage in a public debate with other physicians over his bill. In addition, the majority of the Assembly and Senate policy committee members that heard this bill refused to have an open informational hearing on AB 2109, and instead limited the opposition to mostly brief sound bites at their respective hearings. This is a disservice to our children and to reasoned discussion of life and death issues. Unfortunately, this is usually the rule rather than the exception in this current Legislature. Victories for parental rights are rare these days. (This makes the victories that protect private homeschooling, which God has given us again this year as in past years, all the more amazing.)
We support parents acquiring and examining good information from multiple sources before making any medical decision, including information on vaccines and communicable diseases before deciding which, if any, vaccines they and their children should receive.
One practical and excellent starting point would be the National Vaccine Information Center’s article, “If You Vaccinate, Ask 8.” This provides questions parents should find answers to before consenting to any vaccination for their child. It is available at http://www.nvic.org/Ask-Eight-Questions.aspx.
All children are different and all vaccines are different. Currently the information most parents receive is overwhelmingly weighted toward sending a message that all vaccines are good for all children. This message is based on a “one size fits all” approach that is also common in our public education system.
Very little, if any, information is presented to parents from medical, media, and government sources on facts concerning why some vaccines have not reliably conferred immunity as advertised, nor on the harmful and sometimes deadly or permanently disabling effects of some vaccines due to their contents and how and when they are given. For example, how many know which vaccines contain ingredients manufactured in countries other than the U.S., such as China with little to no oversight and quality control? Thankfully, the Internet (as it is carefully used) is beginning to change that. Due to this one-sided nature of what most parents are exposed to, we will from time to time make materials available to help make sure that at least parents who receive our material get the opportunity to see both sides of the debate about particular vaccines.
It is not our responsibility nor anyone else’s to make decisions about the medical care for other parents’ children. It is parents who should consider the potential benefits and risks and then make the voluntary decision that they consider to be in the best interest of the life and health of each of their children. This is especially true in the area of preventive medicine.
Too many parents will passively take the easy way out and be content to have the presumed experts tell them what to do. Thankfully, this will not be true for most of those who read this article. God holds parents, not the presumed experts, responsible for the well-being of their children.
For more reasons of opposition to AB 2109, see pheofca.org/AB2109update10112.html.
A Personal Note From Roy
During this debate on AB 2109, we took considerable time researching claims of those who said many vaccines are dangerous. Although I had looked at the issue of vaccines before, I was shocked at all the new alarming material I found. The way I grew up, I believed that all medical people agreed as to what was best. I have since discovered that this isn’t always true.
Not only that, but the number of vaccines recommended for children has grown to a mouth-dropping 69 doses of 14 vaccines. Most of these vaccines contain ingredients that can cause harm, such as certain preservatives and toxic metals.
Let me share a true confession.
My tendency is to approach a problem or need and often say that if a little is good then a lot is better. While that may work for some things, I discovered that it could backfire in unintended ways. In the early years of our marriage, my dear wife and I moved out to the country. We excitedly planted a vegetable garden, only to see some insects begin to destroy it before the vegetables had a chance to mature. I thought, “These rascals are going to die!” So I got my insect poison and carefully sprayed all the plants until the poison was dripping off the plants and saturating the ground. And guess what. I was ecstatic that I killed all the insects! However, later the next morning when I proudly went to look at the garden, I was shocked to find that all the vegetable plants were shriveled up and dying! Some treatments have the potential of killing or seriously damaging what we are trying to save. Think about it.
This document is available at www.pheofca.org for your use personally or for distribution.
(Permission is given to duplicate unaltered and complete.)