In 2017, a mother from Michigan was put in jail because she ignored an order from the court to vaccinate her 9-year-old son.
She said that she would do the same again.
Rebecca Bredow lives in the Detroit area and was sentenced to almost a week in jail due to contempt of court after a year passed by since the Oakland County judge ordered immunization of her son and she hadn’t vaccinated him.
Mother Gets Jail Time because She Doesn’t Vaccinate Her Child
The 40-year-old mother said she refused getting her son vaccinated because she was trying to protect him. She was also standing up for what she believed in and if she had to, she would take the risk again.
But, Bredow claims that she never thought she would end up in prison because she was protecting her children and for standing up for her beliefs.
The Fight against Vaccination
Bredow is against vaccinations and she was jailed and also lost custody of her son. Shockingly, after getting out of jail, she was informed that the child was vaccinated against her wishes.
Namely, James Horne, her ex-husband, who has shared custody of the child, wanted their son to get the vaccine. Bredow was against this because of religious reasons.
She’s not against vaccination; she says it’s all about choice, the mother says. She wants to have choices as a mother and this includes making medical-related decisions for her children.
Mother Gets a Court Order to Vaccinate Her Child
The Oakland County Circuit Judge, Karen McDonald informed Bredow that she’s not the only parent who should have a say in their children’s care.
McDonald gave temporary custody to the father and ordered a vaccination while sentencing Bredow to 7-day jail time.
Bredow stated that these were the worst days in her life; except for the moment when she learned that her son got vaccinated against her wishes and that she’s not getting him back right away-this was even worse!
Why Parents Refuse Getting their Children Vaccinated?
Delay or refusal of vaccination is done by numerous parents worldwide and because of different reasons, including personal, philosophical, religious beliefs, as well as safety concerns and lack of information from medical care providers, according to a research from 2016.
The American Medical Association has been advocating against the right to allow parents to refuse vaccination for non-medical reasons and has emphasized the ability of vaccines to avert measles, mumps, and other infectious illnesses.
However, a lot of states allow refusal of vaccines for religious reasons, almost 20 in the US, including Michigan.
However, in Michigan, parents or children guardians attending private or public schools have a requirement of attending an educational class where they learn about illnesses that vaccines avert before they’re allowed to make the refusal.
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