Urgent Call To Action: Your Health. Your Family. Your Choice!

I am a mother, a concerned citizen and a chiropractor operating a family wellness clinic for more than a decade, working to educate the masses. I have experienced more sleepless nights than normal these last several months, tossing and turning, feeling an overwhelming sense of urgency to defend our freedom to make informed health choices which, without question, is being attacked and is about to be taken away from us.

I have great concern for the future and my right as a parent to protect my children’s health and exercise informed consent when it comes to vaccination. I see and hear the media today calling for all nonmedical vaccine exemptions to be eliminated from state vaccine laws and I know it is my responsibility to do something as a mother and as a health advocate.

What is happening goes beyond the present topic of vaccines. The assault on the right to make vaccine choices carries with it even more destruction as it relates to the rights of American families across the board, whether it be the right to eat GMO-free food, homeschool our children or have a baby at home, for that matter.

We as chiropractors hold a unique and powerful position within the health model adhering to the belief that the body’s inherent ability to fend off disease is directly related to our state of overall well-being. The job of the chiropractor is to allow and support the optimal function of the body’s innate intelligence without the addition or subtraction of anything. Bottom line: The vast majority of human infants are born healthy and have an inherent ability to heal and stay well.

I hold a promise to myself to always strive to work on tasks larger than myself. As of 2015 I am lending time to work with Barbara Loe Fisher of NVIC, offering what I can to reach outside my clinic walls to engage my colleagues during this historic moment in time.

So what action steps are readily available to support and protect the legal right of American families to make voluntary vaccine choices? This question was recently raised and got me thinking.

Over the years I have found directing clients, friends and family to the NVIC.org website to be very effective. I highlight the NVIC Advocacy Portal, which is a fabulous feature that allows you and the families in your practice to stay current with vaccine legislation moving in your own home state. It’s free, fast and reliable and any concerned citizen can register and use it. Within moments of registering, you will receive Action Alert e-mails that let you know you need to take action to support or oppose a bill that affects your right to make vaccine choices. NVIC will provide steps, tools and connection to leaders and organizations allowing you to make a positive impact on protecting your right to exercise informed consent in the vaccination decision-making process.

I cannot say enough about how the knowledgerich website at NVIC.org has provided support for me as a trusted practitioner serving my clients. With confidence I am able to direct clients to NVIC’s website, where they can become educated and ultimately decide what is right for them.

Consider sharing the benefits of using the NVIC Advocacy Portal during the precious moments you spend with your clients, friends and family in the coming days, weeks and months. Vaccine bills have been introduced in multiple states this year to take away nonmedical vaccine exemptions, including those for religious, philosophical and conscientious beliefs, and these bills are moving at lightning speed through state legislatures. Vermont legislators voted to strip the philosophical exemption from school admission laws this spring, and special-interest lobbyists are working hard to take both the religious and personal belief exemptions away in California.

In many states—from Washington and Oregon to Maryland, North Carolina and Texas—NVIC has successfully helped families take grassroots action and fight off bad bills that threaten our legal right to exercise nonmedical vaccine exemptions. Now more than ever, we need to inform the families who depend upon us for good advice that we stand with them and are encouraging them to get involved and stand up for human, civil and parental rights.

The chiropractic profession can be a leader in making sure our voice is heard and helping to give the people we serve a voice. I look forward to working with all of you in this important struggle to preserve our right to make informed, voluntary health choices for ourselves and our children.

This article appeared in Pathways to Family Wellness magazine, Issue 47- Astroturf: Don’t Be Fooled by Fake Grassroots.  View full article, Fall 2015