After the COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccine mandates from many companies and schools across the United States, vaccine skepticism is at an all-time high. Many people were unsure about the COVID-19 vaccine, and they were especially skeptical about the amount of pressure put on the American people to get it. And that should be okay. The American system is meant to protect individual rights, including the right to get or not get a covid vaccine, or any vaccine for that matter!
I am not here to tell you that vaccines are good or bad or that you or your children should or should not get any vaccine. What I am here to say is that we should have the right to choose our vaccines. Phyllis Schlafly believed in each American’s right to choose what they do or do not put into their bodies. Americans have the right to take vaccines, but it is not a duty.
Phyllis said in 1999, “Adults are free to assume risk for reasons of their choice: health, safety, protection of family or property, entertainment, or even excitement. But risk is not something that government, in a free society, should ordinarily force people to accept.”
Many vaccines have not had sufficient studies done to ensure their safety beyond any reasonable doubt, and for nearly three decades, it has been incredibly hard to get compensation if the vaccine has adverse side effects. Schlafly wrote, “In presenting their claims of vaccine damages, parents must face a battery of 17 full-time, veteran Justice Department lawyers assigned to argue against them.”
Children are required to get many immunizations before being admitted to public schools. This should be optional. Phyllis said, “Parents are starting to ask a fundamental question. Which is the greater risk: getting and being injured by the disease or being injured from the vaccine that purports to protect us from it?”
This post originally appeared at https://www.phyllisschlafly.com/family/vaccines-are-a-right-not-a-duty/
