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'My body, my choice': How vaccine foes co-opted the abortion rallying cry
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Michael Ejercito
Jul 7, 2022, 12:03:28 AM7/7/22
to
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/07/04/1109367458/my-body-my-choice-vaccines
'My body, my choice': How vaccine foes co-opted the abortion rallying cry
July 4, 20225:01 AM ET
RACHEL BLUTH
FROM
Kaiser Health News
Steve Bova (center) traveled from Maryland to Los Angeles with the
"People's Convoy" to protest covid-19 restrictions. Despite using a
phrase that originated with the abortion rights movement, he opposes
abortion.
Rachel Bluth/Kaiser Health News
In the shadow of L.A.'s art deco City Hall, musicians jammed onstage,
kids got their faces painted, and families picnicked on lawn chairs.
Amid the festivity, people waved flags, sported T-shirts and sold
buttons — all emblazoned with a familiar slogan: "My Body, My Choice."
This wasn't an abortion rights rally. It wasn't a protest against the
recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gutted Roe v. Wade. It was the
"Defeat the Mandates Rally," a jubilant gathering of anti-vaccine
activists in April to protest the few remaining COVID-19 guidelines,
such as mask mandates on mass transit and vaccination requirements for
health care workers.
Similar scenes have played out across the country during the pandemic.
Armed with the language of the abortion rights movement, anti-vaccine
forces have converged with right-leaning causes to protest COVID
precautions.
KHN logo
This story was produced in partnership with Kaiser Health News.
And they're succeeding. Vaccine opponents have appropriated "My Body, My
Choice," a slogan that has been inextricably linked to reproductive
rights for nearly half a century, to fight mask and vaccine mandates
across the country — including in California, where lawmakers had vowed
to adopt the toughest vaccine requirements in the U.S.
As the anti-vaccine contingent has notched successes, the abortion
rights movement has taken hit after hit, culminating in the June 24
Supreme Court decision that ended the federal constitutional right to
abortion. The ruling leaves it up to states to decide, and up to 26
states are expected to ban or severely limit abortion in the coming months.
Now that anti-vaccination groups have laid claim to "My Body, My
Choice," abortion rights groups are distancing themselves from it —
marking a stunning annexation of political messaging.
"It's a really savvy co-option of reproductive rights and the movement's
framing of the issue," said Lisa Ikemoto, a law professor at the
University of California-Davis Feminist Research Institute. "It
strengthens the meaning of choice in the anti-vaccine space and detracts
from the meaning of that word in the reproductive rights space."
Sponsor Message
Framing the decision to vaccinate as a singularly personal one also
obscures its public health consequences, Ikemoto said, because vaccines
are used to protect not just one person but a community of people by
stopping the spread of a disease to those who can't protect themselves.
Celinda Lake, a Democratic strategist and pollster based in Washington,
D.C., said "My Body, My Choice" is no longer polling well with Democrats
because they associate it with anti-vaccination sentiment.
The phrase "My Body, My Choice" was ubiquitous at an April rally against
vaccine mandates in Los Angeles. The slogan started as an abortion
rights catchphrase, but has become a favorite of vaccine skeptics.
Rachel Bluth/Kaiser Health News
"What's really unique about this is that you don't usually see one
side's base adopting the message of the other side's base — and
succeeding," she said. "That's what makes this so fascinating."
Jodi Hicks, president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California,
acknowledged that the appropriation of abortion rights terminology has
worked against the reproductive rights movement. "In this moment, to
co-opt that messaging and distract from the work that we're doing, and
using it to spread misinformation, is frustrating and it's
disappointing," Hicks said.
She said the movement was already gravitating away from the phrase. Even
where abortion is legal, she said, some women can't "choose" to get one
because of financial or other barriers. The movement is now focusing
more heavily on access to health care, using catchphrases such as "Bans
Off Our Bodies" and "Say Abortion," Hicks said.
Sponsor Message
The growth of the anti-vaccination movement
Vaccination hasn't always been this political, said Jennifer Reich, a
sociology professor at the University of Colorado-Denver, who has
written a book about why parents refuse vaccines for their kids.
Opposition to vaccines grew in the 1980s among parents concerned about
school vaccine requirements. Those parents said they didn't have enough
information about vaccines' potential harmful effects, but it wasn't
partisan at the time, Reich said.
The issue exploded onto the political scene after a measles outbreak
tied to Disneyland sickened at least 140 people in 2014 and 2015. When
California lawmakers moved to prohibit parents from claiming personal
belief exemptions for required childhood vaccines, opponents organized
around the idea of "medical choice" and "medical freedom." Those
opponents spanned the political spectrum, Reich said.
The movement against abortion rights is nearing its apex. But it began
way before Roe
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN AMERICA
The history of the anti-abortion movement in the U.S.
Then came COVID. The Trump administration politicized the pandemic from
the outset, starting with masks and stay-at-home orders. Republican
leaders and white evangelicals implemented that strategy on the ground,
Reich said, arguing against vaccine mandates when COVID vaccines were
still only theoretical — scaring people with rhetoric about the loss of
personal choice and images of vaccine passports.
They gained traction despite an obvious inconsistency, she said: Often,
the same people who oppose vaccine requirements — arguing that it's a
matter of choice — are against abortion rights.
"What's really changed is that in the last two or so years, it's become
highly partisan," Reich said.
Joshua Coleman leads V is for Vaccine, a group that opposes vaccine
mandates. He said he deploys the phrase strategically depending on what
state he's working in.
"In a state or a city that is more pro-life, they're not going to
connect with that messaging, they don't believe in full bodily
autonomy," Coleman said.
But in places like California, he takes his "My Body, My Choice"
rhetoric where he thinks it will be effective, like the annual Women's
March, where he says he can sometimes get feminists to consider his
perspective.
Co-opting the slogan
Perception of the word "choice" has changed over time, said Alyssa Wulf,
a cognitive linguist based in Oakland, Calif. The word now evokes an
image of an isolated decision that doesn't affect the broader community,
she said. It can frame an abortion seeker as self-centered, and a
vaccine rejector as an individual making a personal health choice, Wulf
said.
Beyond linguistics, anti-vaccination activists are playing politics,
intentionally trolling the abortion rights groups by using their words
against them, Wulf said. "I really believe there's a little bit of an
'eff you' in that," Wulf said. "We're going to take your phrase."
Tom Blodget, a retired Spanish-language instructor from Chico, Calif.,
sported a "My Body, My Choice" shirt — complete with an image of a
cartoon syringe — at the Defeat the Mandates Rally in Los Angeles. It
was "an ironic thing," he said, meant to expose what he sees as the
hypocrisy of Democrats who support both abortion and vaccine mandates.
Blodget said he is "pro-life" and believes that COVID vaccines are not
immunizations but a form of gene therapy, which is not true.
For Blodget, and many other anti-vaccination activists, there is no
inconsistency in this position. Abortion is not a personal health
decision akin to getting a shot, they say: It is simply murder.
"Women say they can have an abortion because it's their body," Blodget
said. "If that's a valid thing for a lot of people, why should I have to
take an injection of some concoction?"
This 16-year-old wanted to get the COVID vaccine. He had to hide it from
his parents
SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS
This 16-year-old wanted to get the COVID vaccine. He had to hide it from
his parents
About a week later and nearly 400 miles to the north in Sacramento,
state lawmakers heard testimony on bills about abortion and COVID
vaccines. Two protests, one against abortion and one against vaccine
mandates, converged. Truckers from the "People's Convoy," a group that
opposes COVID mandates that had been touring the country with its
message of "medical freedom," testified against a bill that would stop
police from investigating miscarriages or stillbirths as murders.
Anti-abortion activists lined up to oppose a bill that would update
reporting requirements to the state's vaccine registry.
"My Body, My Choice" was ubiquitous: Kids petting police horses in front
of the Capitol wore T-shirts with the slogan, and truckers watching a
sword dance toted signs above their heads.
At the time, two tough legislative proposals to mandate COVID vaccines
for schoolchildren and most workers had already been shelved without a
vote. One controversial vaccination proposal remained: a bill to allow
children 12 and older to get COVID vaccines without parental consent.
Lawmakers have since watered down the measure, raising the minimum age
to 15, and it awaits crucial votes. They have shifted their attention to
the latest political earthquake: abortion.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth
journalism about health issues. It is an editorially independent
operating program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation).
--
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com
'My body, my choice': How vaccine foes co-opted the abortion rallying cry
July 4, 20225:01 AM ET
RACHEL BLUTH
FROM
Kaiser Health News
Steve Bova (center) traveled from Maryland to Los Angeles with the
"People's Convoy" to protest covid-19 restrictions. Despite using a
phrase that originated with the abortion rights movement, he opposes
abortion.
Rachel Bluth/Kaiser Health News
In the shadow of L.A.'s art deco City Hall, musicians jammed onstage,
kids got their faces painted, and families picnicked on lawn chairs.
Amid the festivity, people waved flags, sported T-shirts and sold
buttons — all emblazoned with a familiar slogan: "My Body, My Choice."
This wasn't an abortion rights rally. It wasn't a protest against the
recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gutted Roe v. Wade. It was the
"Defeat the Mandates Rally," a jubilant gathering of anti-vaccine
activists in April to protest the few remaining COVID-19 guidelines,
such as mask mandates on mass transit and vaccination requirements for
health care workers.
Similar scenes have played out across the country during the pandemic.
Armed with the language of the abortion rights movement, anti-vaccine
forces have converged with right-leaning causes to protest COVID
precautions.
KHN logo
This story was produced in partnership with Kaiser Health News.
And they're succeeding. Vaccine opponents have appropriated "My Body, My
Choice," a slogan that has been inextricably linked to reproductive
rights for nearly half a century, to fight mask and vaccine mandates
across the country — including in California, where lawmakers had vowed
to adopt the toughest vaccine requirements in the U.S.
As the anti-vaccine contingent has notched successes, the abortion
rights movement has taken hit after hit, culminating in the June 24
Supreme Court decision that ended the federal constitutional right to
abortion. The ruling leaves it up to states to decide, and up to 26
states are expected to ban or severely limit abortion in the coming months.
Now that anti-vaccination groups have laid claim to "My Body, My
Choice," abortion rights groups are distancing themselves from it —
marking a stunning annexation of political messaging.
"It's a really savvy co-option of reproductive rights and the movement's
framing of the issue," said Lisa Ikemoto, a law professor at the
University of California-Davis Feminist Research Institute. "It
strengthens the meaning of choice in the anti-vaccine space and detracts
from the meaning of that word in the reproductive rights space."
Sponsor Message
Framing the decision to vaccinate as a singularly personal one also
obscures its public health consequences, Ikemoto said, because vaccines
are used to protect not just one person but a community of people by
stopping the spread of a disease to those who can't protect themselves.
Celinda Lake, a Democratic strategist and pollster based in Washington,
D.C., said "My Body, My Choice" is no longer polling well with Democrats
because they associate it with anti-vaccination sentiment.
The phrase "My Body, My Choice" was ubiquitous at an April rally against
vaccine mandates in Los Angeles. The slogan started as an abortion
rights catchphrase, but has become a favorite of vaccine skeptics.
Rachel Bluth/Kaiser Health News
"What's really unique about this is that you don't usually see one
side's base adopting the message of the other side's base — and
succeeding," she said. "That's what makes this so fascinating."
Jodi Hicks, president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California,
acknowledged that the appropriation of abortion rights terminology has
worked against the reproductive rights movement. "In this moment, to
co-opt that messaging and distract from the work that we're doing, and
using it to spread misinformation, is frustrating and it's
disappointing," Hicks said.
She said the movement was already gravitating away from the phrase. Even
where abortion is legal, she said, some women can't "choose" to get one
because of financial or other barriers. The movement is now focusing
more heavily on access to health care, using catchphrases such as "Bans
Off Our Bodies" and "Say Abortion," Hicks said.
Sponsor Message
The growth of the anti-vaccination movement
Vaccination hasn't always been this political, said Jennifer Reich, a
sociology professor at the University of Colorado-Denver, who has
written a book about why parents refuse vaccines for their kids.
Opposition to vaccines grew in the 1980s among parents concerned about
school vaccine requirements. Those parents said they didn't have enough
information about vaccines' potential harmful effects, but it wasn't
partisan at the time, Reich said.
The issue exploded onto the political scene after a measles outbreak
tied to Disneyland sickened at least 140 people in 2014 and 2015. When
California lawmakers moved to prohibit parents from claiming personal
belief exemptions for required childhood vaccines, opponents organized
around the idea of "medical choice" and "medical freedom." Those
opponents spanned the political spectrum, Reich said.
The movement against abortion rights is nearing its apex. But it began
way before Roe
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN AMERICA
The history of the anti-abortion movement in the U.S.
Then came COVID. The Trump administration politicized the pandemic from
the outset, starting with masks and stay-at-home orders. Republican
leaders and white evangelicals implemented that strategy on the ground,
Reich said, arguing against vaccine mandates when COVID vaccines were
still only theoretical — scaring people with rhetoric about the loss of
personal choice and images of vaccine passports.
They gained traction despite an obvious inconsistency, she said: Often,
the same people who oppose vaccine requirements — arguing that it's a
matter of choice — are against abortion rights.
"What's really changed is that in the last two or so years, it's become
highly partisan," Reich said.
Joshua Coleman leads V is for Vaccine, a group that opposes vaccine
mandates. He said he deploys the phrase strategically depending on what
state he's working in.
"In a state or a city that is more pro-life, they're not going to
connect with that messaging, they don't believe in full bodily
autonomy," Coleman said.
But in places like California, he takes his "My Body, My Choice"
rhetoric where he thinks it will be effective, like the annual Women's
March, where he says he can sometimes get feminists to consider his
perspective.
Co-opting the slogan
Perception of the word "choice" has changed over time, said Alyssa Wulf,
a cognitive linguist based in Oakland, Calif. The word now evokes an
image of an isolated decision that doesn't affect the broader community,
she said. It can frame an abortion seeker as self-centered, and a
vaccine rejector as an individual making a personal health choice, Wulf
said.
Beyond linguistics, anti-vaccination activists are playing politics,
intentionally trolling the abortion rights groups by using their words
against them, Wulf said. "I really believe there's a little bit of an
'eff you' in that," Wulf said. "We're going to take your phrase."
Tom Blodget, a retired Spanish-language instructor from Chico, Calif.,
sported a "My Body, My Choice" shirt — complete with an image of a
cartoon syringe — at the Defeat the Mandates Rally in Los Angeles. It
was "an ironic thing," he said, meant to expose what he sees as the
hypocrisy of Democrats who support both abortion and vaccine mandates.
Blodget said he is "pro-life" and believes that COVID vaccines are not
immunizations but a form of gene therapy, which is not true.
For Blodget, and many other anti-vaccination activists, there is no
inconsistency in this position. Abortion is not a personal health
decision akin to getting a shot, they say: It is simply murder.
"Women say they can have an abortion because it's their body," Blodget
said. "If that's a valid thing for a lot of people, why should I have to
take an injection of some concoction?"
This 16-year-old wanted to get the COVID vaccine. He had to hide it from
his parents
SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS
This 16-year-old wanted to get the COVID vaccine. He had to hide it from
his parents
About a week later and nearly 400 miles to the north in Sacramento,
state lawmakers heard testimony on bills about abortion and COVID
vaccines. Two protests, one against abortion and one against vaccine
mandates, converged. Truckers from the "People's Convoy," a group that
opposes COVID mandates that had been touring the country with its
message of "medical freedom," testified against a bill that would stop
police from investigating miscarriages or stillbirths as murders.
Anti-abortion activists lined up to oppose a bill that would update
reporting requirements to the state's vaccine registry.
"My Body, My Choice" was ubiquitous: Kids petting police horses in front
of the Capitol wore T-shirts with the slogan, and truckers watching a
sword dance toted signs above their heads.
At the time, two tough legislative proposals to mandate COVID vaccines
for schoolchildren and most workers had already been shelved without a
vote. One controversial vaccination proposal remained: a bill to allow
children 12 and older to get COVID vaccines without parental consent.
Lawmakers have since watered down the measure, raising the minimum age
to 15, and it awaits crucial votes. They have shifted their attention to
the latest political earthquake: abortion.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth
journalism about health issues. It is an editorially independent
operating program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation).
--
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com
HeartDoc Andrew
Jul 7, 2022, 1:21:48 AM7/7/22
to
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
...because we mindfully choose to openly care with our heart,
HeartDoc Andrew <><
--
Andrew B. Chung, MD/PhD
Cardiologist with an http://bit.ly/EternalMedicalLicense
2024 & upwards non-partisan candidate for U.S. President:
http://WonderfullyHungry.org
and author of the 2PD-OMER Approach:
http://bit.ly/HeartDocAndrewCare
which is the only **healthy** cure for the U.S. healthcare crisis
Michael Ejercito
Jul 7, 2022, 2:36:25 AM7/7/22
to
Michael
HeartDoc Andrew
Jul 7, 2022, 2:41:43 AM7/7/22
to
Michael Ejercito wrote:
While wonderfully hungry in the Holy Spirit, Who causes (Deuteronomy
8:3) us to hunger, I note that you, Michael, are rapture ready (Luke
17:37 means no COVID just as circling eagles don't have COVID) and
pray (2 Chronicles 7:14) that our Everlasting (Isaiah 9:6) Father in
Heaven continues to give us "much more" (Luke 11:13) Holy Spirit
(Galatians 5:22-23) so that we'd have much more of His Help to always
say/write that we're "wonderfully hungry" in **all** ways including
especially caring to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12
as shown by http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest ) with all glory (
http://bit.ly/Psalm112_1 ) to GOD (aka HaShem, Elohim, Abba, DEO), in
the name (John 16:23) of LORD Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Amen.
Laus DEO !
Suggested further reading:
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/5EWtT4CwCOg/m/QjNF57xRBAAJ
Shorter link:
http://bit.ly/StatCOVID-19Test
Be hungrier, which really is wonderfully healthier especially for
diabetics and other heart disease patients:
http://bit.ly/HeartDocAndrew touts hunger (Luke 6:21a) with all glory
( http://bit.ly/Psalm112_1 ) to GOD, Who causes us to hunger
(Deuteronomy 8:3) when He blesses us right now (Luke 6:21a) thereby
removing the http://tinyurl.com/HeartVAT from around the heart
8:3) us to hunger, I note that you, Michael, are rapture ready (Luke
17:37 means no COVID just as circling eagles don't have COVID) and
pray (2 Chronicles 7:14) that our Everlasting (Isaiah 9:6) Father in
Heaven continues to give us "much more" (Luke 11:13) Holy Spirit
(Galatians 5:22-23) so that we'd have much more of His Help to always
say/write that we're "wonderfully hungry" in **all** ways including
especially caring to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12
as shown by http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest ) with all glory (
http://bit.ly/Psalm112_1 ) to GOD (aka HaShem, Elohim, Abba, DEO), in
the name (John 16:23) of LORD Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Amen.
Laus DEO !
Suggested further reading:
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/5EWtT4CwCOg/m/QjNF57xRBAAJ
Shorter link:
http://bit.ly/StatCOVID-19Test
Be hungrier, which really is wonderfully healthier especially for
diabetics and other heart disease patients:
http://bit.ly/HeartDocAndrew touts hunger (Luke 6:21a) with all glory
( http://bit.ly/Psalm112_1 ) to GOD, Who causes us to hunger
(Deuteronomy 8:3) when He blesses us right now (Luke 6:21a) thereby
removing the http://tinyurl.com/HeartVAT from around the heart
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