AB2109

					California Pediatrician Legislator Pushing Bill to Make Parents Pay For a Dr. Appointment to TRY to Obtain a Personal Belief Exemption Contact California Legislators NOW to Oppose AB2109 Dear California NVIC Advocacy Team Members, Your rights to make informed independent vaccination choices for your family are under attack by forced vaccination proponents in California who want to profit from restricting your independent access to a personal belief exemption to mandatory vaccination. We need your timely help to contact California legislators to oppose Assembly Bill 2109. AB2109, introduced by Assembly Member Richard Pan, who himself is a pediatrician, would impose these additional costly and time consuming burdens on parents wanting to use a personal belief exemption to: 1) pay for an expensive appointment at a medical doctor’s office to be given vaccine risk and benefit information that is already available online for free; and 2) jump through the bureaucratic hoops of obtaining yet additional new forms provided by the Department of Public Health which state that the health care practitioner has provided risk and benefit information to the parent; and 3) find a health care provider actually willing to take the appointment and then sign the new forms within 6th months of starting school for the exemption to be valid. This raises many questions legislators need to answer including: · How will the state pay for all these extra required office visits for families on public assistance and for the kids of state employees who have their health coverage provided by the state? · What happens to a parent who can’t find a provider willing to make these types of appointments and then sign the form? · What will stop doctors from using this law to deny access to philosophical exemptions? It is already hard enough for families to find providers who are willing to just treat children in their practice at all when they deviate from the required vaccination schedule. The bill has been referred to the Assembly Committee on Health. Text of the bill can be found here: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_2101-2150/ab_2109_bill_20120223_introduced.html. We will let you know as soon as we know the hearing date. In the meantime, we need you to take the following actions to help oppose this bill: 1) Contact members of the Assembly Committee on Health and ask them to oppose AB 2109 (suggested phone call outline below). Assembly Member Phone and Fax Link to Contact Form William Monning (D) - Chair Tel: (916) 319-2027 Fax: (916) 319-2127 Contact Assembly Member William W. Monning Dan Logue (R) - Vice Chair (P) 916-319-2003 (F) 916-319-2103 Contact Assemblyman Dan Logue Tom Ammiano (D) Tel: (916) 319-2013 Fax: (916) 319-2113 Contact Assembly Member Tom Ammiano Toni Atkins (D) Tel: (916) 319-2076 Fax: (916) 319-2176 Contact Assembly Member Toni Atkins Susan Bonilla (D) Tel: (916) 319-2011 Fax: (916) 319-2111 Contact Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla Mike Eng (D) Tel: (916) 319-2049 Fax: (916) 319-2149 Contact Assembly Member Mike Eng Martin Garrick (R) (P) 916-319-2074 (F) 916-319-2174 Contact Assemblyman Martin Garrick Richard .S Gordon (D) Tel: (916) 319-2021 Fax: (916) 319-2121 Contact Assemblyman Richard S. Gordon Mary Hayashi (D) Tel: (916) 319-2018 Fax: (916) 319-2118 Contact Assembly Member Mary Hayashi Roger Hernandez (D) Tel: (916) 319-2057 Fax: (916) 319-2157 Contact Assembly Assistant Majority Whip Roger Hernández Bonnie Lowenthal (D) Tel: (916) 319-2054 Fax: (916) 319-2154 Contact Assembly Member Bonnie Lowenthal Allan R. Mansoor (R) (P) (916) 319-2068 (F) (916) 319-2168 Contact Assemblyman Allan R. Mansoor Holly J. Mitchell (D) Tel: (916) 319-2047 Fax: (916) 319-2147 Contact Assembly Member Holly J. Mitchell Brian Nestande (R) (P) 916-319-2064 (F) 916-319-2164 Contact Assembly Member Brian Nestande Richard Pan (D) – sponsor Tel: (916) 452-0505 Fax: (916) 452-5525 Contact Assembly Member Richard Pan V. Manuel Perez (D) Tel: (916) 319-2080 Fax: (916) 319-2180 Contact Assembly Member V. Manuel Peréz Jim Silva (R) (P) 916-319-2067 (F) 916-319-2167 Contact Assembly Member Jim Silva Cameron Smyth (R) (P) 916-319-2038 (F) 916-319-2138 Contact Assembly Member Cameron Smyth Das Williams Tel: (916) 319-2035 Fax: (916) 319-2135 Contact Assembly Member Das Williams Additional contact information for district offices is available by clicking on the assembly members name here - http://ahea.assembly.ca.gov/membersstaff Emails are listed as assemblymember.lastname@assembly.ca.gov , however most assembly members prefer to be contacted via the online contact form linked in the table above. 2) Contact your state senator and state assembly member and ask them to oppose AB2109. If you log in to the NVIC Advocacy Portal at http://NVICAdvocacy.org and view this alert on the California state page, we will automatically lookup who your legislators are and display them to the right of this alert. You can click on their names to open up their contact information. This free confidential service requires your registration and login in order for us to be able to calculate who you legislators are. 3) Let us know if you can help with the hearings by contacting NVIC CA State Directors, Dawn Winkler or Michelle Gutierrez, at CADirector@NVICAdvocacy.org or call Dawn Winkler at (530) 283-1018 if you a) are willing to attend the committee hearings and/or testify against the bill; or b) have a family member who has suffered an adverse reaction to a pertussis containing vaccine and are willing to provide written or oral testimony against the bill while describing that reaction; or c) you have been thrown out of your doctor’s office for delaying or declining a vaccine and are willing to share your story with legislators; or d) you are a health care provider who is willing to provide testimony against the bill. 4) Send this to as many friends and family in California that you can and ask them to please register for the NVIC Advocacy Portal at http://NVICAdvocacy.org so they can get added to this state email list and receive updates how they can help fight this bill during this session. TO LIKE AND SHARE THIS ALERT ON FACEBOOK, link to http://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Resources/CAOPPOSEAB2109RestrictingVaccineExemptions.aspx and click on “like” or “send” by the Facebook tag on the top of the page. Sample Phone Plan: · Call the office number and introduce yourself and ask to talk to someone about AB 2109. If this is your assembly member’s office, let them know you are a constituent and what town/city you are from. · Let the appropriate person know you are opposed to AB 2109 because it requires you to have to pay for an extra medical office visit you don’t want or need, it requires additional bureaucratic paperwork, and as a parent if this passes, you have no guarantee you will be able to find a provider who will take these appointments or sign the form. (If you’ve ever been harassed by a doctor before or denied care, this is a great place to talk about this). · Let the legislative office know that this bill wastes your time and money because you are already well educated on vaccine risks and benefits (explain the steps you have taken to educate yourself above and beyond any handout could provide). · Let them know about your personal story what got you involved in this issue and why an unrestricted personal belief exemption is important to your family especially if anyone in your family has had a vaccine reaction. Additional Talking Points Against AB 2109 to be used in your written letters/email: · Forcing parents into a paid contractual relationship with a health care provider they wouldn’t otherwise utilize for their children’s health care is not only a violation of basic parental rights, it creates distrust and resentment towards public health programs run by the state. · Especially in California, many families utilize health care providers not reliant on pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines, and only practitioners part of the pharmaceutical paradigm or medicine are allowed to provide the information and sign the form under this bill. · AB 2109 discriminates against families utilizing complementary and alternative medicine by forcing them into paying money to a medical practitioner they wouldn’t otherwise use who is already philosophically opposed to the parent’s personal and religious convictions regarding vaccination. · Parents who utilize vaccine exemptions are typically more educated regarding the risks and benefits of vaccination than both the parents who choose vaccination and aren’t required by this bill to receive this information and the health care providers who would be required to sign the exemption in order for it to be valid. · Many doctors’ offices throw families out of their practice for delaying or declining a vaccine. There is nothing in this bill to prevent a doctor’s office from refusing to take these appointments to begin with or for refusing to sign the form once a family pays for a visit. These real obstacles will restrict or deny access to the personal beliefs exemption for some families currently using it. · The state is not in the financial position to pay for all these extra required office visits within 6 months of school starting for families on public assistance and for the kids of state employees who have their health coverage provided by the state and who want to delay or a decline one or more vaccines. · The information required by this bill is already available to parents online for free and coercive measures like this bill do nothing but create and further distrust and resentment towards public health programs run by the state. · There is NO current crisis that would indicate that CA needs to make it more difficult to obtain exemptions from vaccination. · Most vaccination rates in CA for children 19 to 35 months old for individual vaccines are at or above the CDC Healthy People 2020 goal of 90%. (http://www2a.cdc.gov/nip/coverage/nis/nis_iap2.asp?fmt=v&rpt=tab03_antigen_state&qtr=Q1/2009-Q4/2009) · Vaccination rates for children entering kindergarten in California have increased from 2010 to 2011 and are at or above the CDC Healthy People 2020 goals of 90%, except for one category, which is at 89.4%. (http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/immunize/Documents/2011SelectiveReviewResults.pdf) · Bill Sponsor Assembly Member Dr. Richard Pan, claims in a press release that his bill will help prevent outbreaks of pertussis. It is important for legislators to understand that the pertussis outbreaks in CA are due to waning immunity of the vaccine, and not because of families taking the exemption. Here are some references to back this point. o "The rise in pertussis doesn’t seem to be related to parents’ refusing to have their children vaccinated for fear of potential side effects. In California, pertussis rates are about the same in counties with high childhood vaccination rates and low ones. And the C.D.C. reports that pertussis immunization rates have been stable or increasing since 1992."(http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/vaccination-is-steady-but-pertussis-is-surging/ ) o Children can be susceptible to pertussis even if they are completely vaccinated. (http://www.inewsource.org/2011/03/28/experts-zero-in-on-waning-immunity/ ) o The acellular pertussis vaccine’s failure to deliver durable infection protection to children aged 7-10 years led to the 2010 California pertussis epidemic. (http://www.internalmedicinenews.com/news/conference-news/infectious-diseases-society-of-america-conference/single-article/acellular-pertussis-vaccine-s-waning-immunity-caused-california-epidemic/71de9826f4.html) o The pertussis vaccine has been found to wane after only 3 years, leaving a much larger population of fully vaccinated children susceptible to pertusssis than unvaccinated children. KPBS and the Watchdog Institute performed a joint investigation into the recent increasing pertussis rates in California and found the majority of cases of pertussis were occurring in fully vaccinated populations of children in the 8-12 year old age group. They went on to show that the vaccine wanes after only 3 years. (http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/sep/20/whooping-cough-vaccine-wanes-after-three-years/) · Bill supporters claim that vaccines are safe. The reality is there is real risk. The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was established by Congress in 1986 to protect vaccine manufacturers and doctors from liability for vaccine injuries and death. As of Jan. 3, 2012, there have been 14,073 claims filed for vaccine injury and 1077 death claims. The total dollar amount of vaccine injury and death awards granted and paid to families of vaccine victims by our government is $2,366,649,931.96. (http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/statisticsreports.html#Claims) · Just for pertussis containing vaccines alone administered in the state of California, 11,516 reports of Vaccine Adverse Events have been filed with the federal government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System where 77% of the reports of adverse events are for children 6 and under. There have been 5,775 disorders of the nervous system reported and 172 deaths. 96% of the deaths reported were in children three and under. (http://www.medalerts.org/) Sincerely, Dawn Richardson, Director of Advocacy National Vaccine Information Center http://NVIC.org and http://NVICAdvocacy.org Dawn@NVICAdvocacy.org The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) works diligently to prepare and disseminate our legislative advocacy action alerts and supporting materials. We request that organizations and members of the public forward our alerts in their original form to assure consistent and accurate messaging and effective action. Please acknowledge NVIC as originators of this work when forwarding to members of the public and like-minded organizations. To receive alerts immediately, register at http://NVICAdvocacy.org, a website dedicated to this sole purpose and provided as a free public service by NVIC.

Warning for California Residents

Here we go again. California's legislators are attempting to destroy our right to choose not to put poisons into our kids once again. Here is an e-mail from the NVIC Advocacy Team that is a must read.

Dear California NVIC Advocacy Team Members,

Please read this important alert from one of your California NVIC Advocacy Team Directors, Dawn Winkler, and take action to contact your legislators to fight this new threat to vaccine exemptions in California.
Sincerely,

Dawn Richardson, Director of Advocacy
National Vaccine Information Center
http://NVIC.org and http://NVICAdvocacy.org
Dawn@NVICAdvocacy.org

AB2109 Threatens Vaccine Exemptions in California
Immediate Action Needed
February 26, 2012

AB2109 was introduced on February 23, 2012 by Assembly Member Richard Pan, a Democrat physician. The bill is co-authored by Senator Wolk and Assembly Member Fuentes.

This bill, if passed, would require parents to obtain the signature of a “health care practitioner” for a personal beliefs/religious exemption. MD’s, nurse practitioners, and physician’s assistants can sign. Naturopaths and chiropractors cannot.

The signature will need to be obtained on a separate form provided by the Department of Public Health which states that the health care practitioner has provided risk and benefit information to the parent.

This bill “may be heard in committee” March 25th, but at this time we have no concrete information on which committee or date. It is critical that you contact your own CA state legislators NOW and ask them to oppose AB2109.

As soon as we know which committee the bill will be assigned to, we will let everyone know contact information for each committee member and the time and date of the committee hearing for this bill.

Text of the bill can be found here:
http://www.statescape.com/ssBillText/CA20112012/CA_20112012_AB_002109_Current_1127.html

Please register or log into the NVIC’s state advocacy portal at www.nvicadvocacy.org and find your state legislators’ contact information by entering your zip + four information on the right hand side. By logging into the portal, you will be able to follow the progress of the bill and find information regarding what action is needed when.

You can also access legislator and bill information at the CA Legislature’s website:
http://www.legislature.ca.gov/

Please contact Dawn Winkler if you live in the Sacramento area and are willing and able to attend committee hearings. CADirector@NVICAdvocacy.org (530) 283-1018

Reasons to Oppose AB2109/Talking Points

· Forcing parents into a paid contractual relationship with a health care provider they might not otherwise utilize for their children’s health care is a violation of basic parental rights.

· Health care practitioners should not have anything to do with a parent’s personal beliefs/religious exemption.

· Parents who utilize exemptions are typically far more educated regarding the benefits versus risks of vaccination than the health care providers who would be asked to sign off on an exemption.

· How can any health care practitioner fully educate a parent regarding the risks and benefits of vaccination in 20 minutes or less? A study in Pediatrics showed 80% of parents reported “well” visits lasted less than 20 minutes. One third of parents reported visits of less than 10 minutes.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/128/4/657.abstract

· This bill does nothing but put parents who are exercising their rights under the law in a position in which they will have to pay money to be harassed by someone who disagrees with their views.

· There is NO current crisis that would indicate that CA needs to make it more difficult to obtain exemptions from vaccination.

· NOT ALL parents utilize mainstream, Western medicine based practitioners. There is no law stating that parents must utilize such practitioners. AB2109 forces parents to do so in order to obtain an exemption to mandatory vaccination for personal/religious reasons.

--
In Health and Liberty,

Dawn Winkler

California NVIC Advocacy Team Director
CADirector@NVICAdvocacy.org
Executive Director
Health Advocacy in the Public Interest (HAPI)
www.hapihealth.com
hapi.vaxinfo@gmail.com
530-283-1018
970-209-3919

Protect Our Children - Teach Them How to Avoid the Onslaught of STD Vaccinations

On October 9, 2011, a new California law, AB 499, upgraded children to adult status. This law allows minors to consent to STD vaccinations without their parent's knowledge. At first glance, the law seems like it is supporting children by allowing them to make their own medical decisions. In reality, this law serves another purpose. AB 499 allows medical personal to coerce children into receiving STD vaccinations, eliminating parents from being involved or from giving consent. Children now more than ever need three introductory tips on how to protect themselves from receiving these vaccinations from authority figures they have previously been groomed to obey.

The first step is to have your child write a waiver exempting him or her from all STD vaccinations and place it in his/her school file. As young as twelve, children have the authority to grant permission or to decline STD vaccinations. In the waiver, or letter, the child should make it clear that he or she is not to be pulled out of any classes for STD vaccination lectures or the administration of STD vaccinations. Parents can also write and sign a separate letter to be placed in the file stating that they are aware of their child's request and expect it to be followed, as AB 499 legally gives their child the right to decline STD vaccinations. These letters should be written by both sexes since Big Pharma intends to profit from boys as well. Furthermore, an updated letter should be written every new school year to ensure that the nurse is aware of your child's feelings and legal stance.

The second step is to educate your child about Gardasil and Cervarix through research. According to Pharmalot, "As of January 15, 2011, [Gardasil] had 21,171 adverse reactions and 91 deaths reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System." Children can arm themselves with statistics and demonstrate that minors cannot be manipulated into harming themselves just because a handful of California politicians thought they would be easy prey and easy money. Education on the part of the child ensures a doctor cannot get away with altering the truth.

The third and final step as an introduction to protecting themselves is to unlearn proper etiquette when conversing with an authority figure. A child's life may be counting on his or her ability to effectively question adults, even though adults may view this as talking back. Since the state of California gives children the power to decline STD vaccinations just as any adult can, children need to be taught to view health care practitioners as equals. A minor has the right to leave a medical setting, even at school. They can say, "No," firmly, with their hands over their ears if the nurse continues to talk about STD vaccinations. Everything that a child has been taught to say to a drug dealer, including escape tactics, should be taught as a response to someone intending to administer a shot. Just like with a potential kidnapper, this is no time for being polite. Teach your child to get away and to get away fast! Have the child return later with a parent to be certain the events that transpired have been documented. If your child was harassed, report the doctor to the AMA.

This law doesn't have to make children victims. It can empower them. AB 499 is not just a law allowing children to obtain STD vaccinations secretly. It is an opportunity for them to legally decline vaccinations.

For more information, please read The Five Things You Really Need to KnowAbout HPV Vaccines by Tony Isaacs at:
http://www.naturalnews.com/033688_HPV_vaccines_Gardasil.html#ixzz1Z6dzwzOV
And please visit the must see website: http://www.sanevax.org.

Article Sources:
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist....

http://www.pharmalot.com/2011/09/ca...

http://vaers.hhs.gov/index

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...

http://www.shariseparviz.com/balanc... (NVIC Advocacy Portal)

http://www.pharmalot.com/2011/07/ca...

AB 499: Insanity in California

Today my daughter handed in her vaccination waiver to her school. Since Jerry Brown has decided my daughter is old enough to make decisions, she proved it by demanding that she not be disturbed during her school day by STD vaccination advertising nor by being approached to have the shot for STD's.

I urge all parents out there to have their kids, who are twelve and older, do the same. We need to prove to Brown and to our senators that we've built a new reality for ourselves and their attempt to force harmful vaccinations on our youth, and their attempt to destroy families, cannot be successful.

R Buckminster Fuller as quoted in Mikio Sankey's Climbing Jacob's Ladder reminds us how not to allow big business to affect us when he says, "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." All summer, I tried to stop this piece of insane legislation and failed. Fighting wasn't successful. It's time for a new model. Let's educate our children and support them in being advocates for their health. If there is no prey for our vulture politicians, who are supported by Big Pharma, then this insane bill is useless to them and cannot harm us.

As a result of handing in the letter, my daughter has been assured by school authorities that she doesn't have to sit through any lecture that makes her feel uncomfortable. Good for her school in responding favorably to the letter.

For more information on what kind of letter and why it needs to be written, please read my article at www.naturalnews.com entitled "Protect Our Children."

AB 499: California’s Plot to Strip Parental Power

Please visit these sites for more information.

http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/2011/09/secret-vaccination-of-children-with-no-parental-consent/

http://educate-yourself.org/vcd/vetaAB499letter29sep11.shtml

Currently, kids are not allowed even to take an aspirin at school without written parent permission. However, if AB 499 becomes law, California’s kids aged twelve and older can accept a number of pharmaceuticals without their parent’s knowledge. Gardasil along with any vaccine advertised as preventing sexually transmitted diseases, as well as the Hepatitis B vaccination and medicines for HIV will be administered at the child’s request. Even some dental work will be performed without informing the parents. This bill will effectively remove parents from the examination room and, once again, line the pockets of Big Pharma, while possibly quietly harming children.

According to CCG Action, “They [Big Pharma] will profit from bypassing parents and coercing children into receiving the vaccines for certain STDs.” CCG Action also reports, incidentally, that Merck gave $500,000 to the American College of Gynecology last year and $100,000 this year. The connection between Merck and Assembly Member Atkins is that the American College of

Gynecology asked Atkins to write AB 499.

Atkins, a non-parent, is a Democrat in Assembly District 76 (San Diego, California) who was elected in 2010. One of the many committees she’s a member of is the Assembly Committee of Health. She hasn’t wasted much time in returning the favor to the medical profession which has helped to financially support her. According to Maplight, Health Professionals donated $54,999 to her campaign. Likewise, Pharmaceuticals and Health products contributed $10,746. The next three contributors of importance are the California Dental Association ($15,600), the California Medical Association ($8,800), and the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee ($8,550), and the Cooperative of American Physicians contributed $7,800. The AFSCME group contributed $7,800 twice. According to AFSCME’s website, the members are emergency dispatchers, home health workers, doctors of the elderly and disabled, as well as people of other professions. Clearly, the individual and group top ten contributors to Atkins have ties with pharmaceuticals, as well as to medical and dental interests.

According to Cap Wiz, “It [AB 499] will also provide significant protection to pedophiles who might be preying on children [b]y weakening California’s mandated reporter laws.” After all, if a twelve-year-old can legally show up in a doctor’s office requesting a vaccine to prevent STDs, it’s possible the child is engaging in sex. If the child is engaging in sex, someone is breaking another law. Cap Wiz points out that sex with a twelve year old is a felony, yet Atkins is proposing a law around the subject of sexually active minors. A minor who feels the threat of a possible disease and asks for the vaccine should be seen as a child crying out for help, not ignored because a law is in place to give them three doses of a shot. Cap Wiz writes, “How can a physician or nurse give a vaccine for a sexually transmitted disease, or other professionals counsel a child on getting such a vaccine, without the child’s parents’ involvement, and obey the mandated reporter laws? We don’t know either, which is why we consider this bill to [be] the California Pedophile Protection Act of 2011.” Since it will be legal for a doctor to vaccinate the child without parent knowledge, chances are that that mandated reporting, as a whole, will cease to happen.

Citizen Speak is advocating the law in order to help homeless youths, especially child prostitutes. The law is aimed to help a small subgroup within the six percent young runaways─children who need help, not the right to say ‘yes’ to a harmful vaccine. Establishing a law that will affect ALL children, therefore, is overkill.

Senator Noreen Evans argues, “A lot of kids today do not have parents that are either capable or do take responsible care of them” (CCG Action). Her sentence is worded strangely. Perhaps because she knows what she is arguing is weak, because laws are in place to help kids of neglectful parents. Perhaps Evans is referring to a law needed against those parents who sign waivers instead of vaccinating their children. Perhaps AB 499 is intended to override the exemption law of California. After all, if AB 499 passes, parents will lose their right to decide what’s best for their children regarding STDs vaccines, HIV medication, and dental procedures.

An argument for this bill may be for when an educated youngster, who has been begging her parents to learn more about vaccines, avoid being forced to have Gardasil. With AB 499 in place, the parents won’t be able to force their ignorance onto the child, at least with some of the vaccinations. AB 499 might give the child the right to say 'no.' I say might because doctors can be powerfully persuasive. I sincerely doubt that a youngster, no matter how bright, can stand up to a forceful, manipulative doctor. I am a vaccination-educated adult who has performed at least twenty-three years of research. Yet I almost succumbed to the techniques (from flirting to bullying) of a few doctors trying to get me to agree to vaccinations. AB 499 will place a child alone in a room with an authority figure that everyone is taught to respect and who knows more than we do about what’s best. Because children have less life experience, they are not likely to be able to say ‘no’ to a doctor’s propaganda. Fancy our Senators passing a law that places these tender young ones in the hands of Big Pharma and its cohorts.

CCG Action points out that the bill doesn’t state that children will be informed that Gardasil could cause death, and the bill doesn’t allow for parents to be informed that their child has received the vaccine. Without parents being aware that their children have had the Gardasil shot, parents won’t know why the child has become sick as a result of the vaccination. Also, a child might not know his or her own personal history regarding an adverse reaction to a Hepatitis B shot, for example, and may allow him or herself to be coerced into having the shot. If the child subsequently experiences an adverse reaction, parents will be unable to help their child in a timely manner. Who is held responsible, especially if the child dies? This may not only be a way of making money off the population and stripping parents of their parental rights, it may be a sneaky way to harm people undetected.

The moonlight and roses pamphlets the doctors hand to the children will leave the kids with the impression that they have permission to have sex because this shot will protect them. What the pamphlets will not say is how harmful Gardasil is. For example, according to Pharmalot, “As of January 15, 2011, [Gardasil] had 21,171 adverse reactions and 91 deaths reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.” While an adult might be aware of these statistics, what are the chances that a youngster will? Yet Senator Atkins is pushing this bill through, which will ensure even more children receive this shot. NVIC says, AB 499 “gives the government control over the health of our children!” Or is it that the government is gaining control over the creation of illnesses of our children? How many kids will read their pamphlets anyway? If a friend got the shot because it makes them look cool,and as if they’re having sex, then another kid might have the shot, too. Twelve is the age of doing what’s cool, not necessarily what’s best.

Minors deserve to have their parent’s guidance in medical matters. With AB 499; however, parents who have studied the adverse affects of vaccines will become powerless to stop the minor from getting a vaccine for sexually transmitted diseases, even if they’ve signed a vaccination waiver. Parents who are aware of the harm vaccines are capable of doing will be pushed aside by nurses who can show up at the child’s school with scary stories, and coerce the child into having the vaccine. Author Camiile Giglio reports on a fifteen year old, without a parent present, being bullied by a doctor into having the Gardisal shot, and this was without a law on the doctor’s side (Cap Wiz). Again, now more than ever, children need to be educated about vaccines and medical control, or else vaccines may kill and maim without anyone being the wiser.

A person needs to be over twenty-one in order to get a credit card over the phone, yet AB 499 ensures that a child can make a life and death decision regarding health care at the age of twelve. According to Cap Wiz, this absurd bill was moved to the Suspense File on August 15, 2011, to be heard again ten days later, when it will most likely move to the Senate floor quickly.

AB 499 is waiting for Governor Brown to officially make it a law, or to veto it. Please call, fax, and e-mail asking him to veto it. Thank-you!

Hair Feathers: Fashionable Animal Abuse

Most feathers that people wear in their hair are not fake. They are the real saddle feathers obtained from roosters that are raised specifically for these ornamental feathers. If you think these feathers are from chickens harvested for their meat, you’re wrong. After the roosters are slaughtered, the carcasses are thrown away. While wearing feathers from roosters raised for their saddle feathers might be the fashion, it is also animal abuse.

 

Roosters are genetically bred over generations specifically for the special feathers that grow on their backsides, and most do not survive the plucking. In fact, it is common practice to euthanize the roosters before removing the feathers. Real feathers such as these are coveted because they can be curled, washed, blow dried, and brushed along with a person’s hair, whereas the synthetic feathers melt under the same hot treatments. Feathers can be bonded together using hot glue. Then the stylist can clip the feathers into their patron’s hair without any fear of the quills melting.

In June, Whiting Farms in Colorado reported that they were killing roughly 1,500 birds a month. Wearing feathers in the hair is a worldwide craze. If thousands of roosters are slaughtered weekly in the United States for their saddle feathers, what is the number of slaughtered roosters worldwide? Whiting Farms says that in the year 2000, they used over 125,000 roosters for their feathers only. That was back when fly fisherman were the only market, prior to hair feathers coming into fashion. Imagine what the number of slaughtered roosters must be now.

A rooster is only permitted about a year of life─being robbed of roughly fourteen years─ because that is long enough to grow the beautiful feathers desired by fashion gurus and fly fisherman alike. Although the cost of the feathers has increased, making more money for those in the feather business, conditions for the birds haven’t improved. In fact, it has gotten worse since more roosters are being bred to be slaughtered for their feathers. According to Ethical Style, over half of a rooster’s life is spent in a crowded cage. The Audubon Society says that this trend is cruel. Perhaps consumers assume live plucking takes place because that seems to make sense. However, that is not the case for most roosters.

 

If you have a desire to wear feathers, perhaps you could pick them up from the ground, salt treat them, and then color them as you please. Truly commune with nature by thanking the bird who belonged to the feather you have found and see it as a gift that has come to you. The ground offers a variety of feathers from a variety of birds. They can be worn secretly within a medicine bag or displayed with beads and a tie. Inquire at your salon about metallic hair extensions and ask if the care of them is different from the care of feathers in your hair.

While the fish may be breathing a sigh of relief over the fisherman’s despair in procuring a feather lure, roosters are suffering more. The practice of putting feathers in the hair is even starting to become a canine trend. It goes to show that before you buy into a new trend, research every detail about it. Do not make assumptions just because you would never raise a bird to slaughter for a feather or two. Once again in human history, animal abuse should not be synonymous with our idea of stylish fashions.

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/feather-hair-extensions-killing-roosters.html

http://www.dosomething.org/news/would-you-kill-rooster-new-hairdo

http://www.ecorazzi.com/2011/06/10/keha-urges-fans-to-use-cruelty-free-feather-extensions/

http://ethicalstyle.com/2011/07/is-the-feather-hair-extensions-trend-green-or-unethical/

http://getfeatherhairextensions.com/search/fake-feathers-for-hair/

http://www.globalanimal.org/?s=feather+extensions&x=11&y=4

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/outdoors/2015246435_flyfash.html

http://www.thediscerningbrute.com/tag/grizzly-feather/

http://www.whitingfarms.com/prod_main.html