Musicians jammed in the shadow of L.A.’s art deco City Hall while kids were painted and families ate on lawn chairs. People waved flags, sold buttons aEUR”, and wore T-shirts.
This was not an abortion rights rally. This was not a protest against Roe v. Wade’s recent U.S. Supreme Court decision. It was the “Defeat the Mandates Rally”, a jubilant gathering anti-vaccine activists who protested the few remaining COVID-19 guidelines such as the mask mandates for mass transit and the vaccination requirements for healthcare workers.
Similar scenes were seen across the country during this pandemic. Anti-vaccine activists have joined forces with right-leaning causes to protest COVID precautions, using the language of the abortion rights movement.
This story was created in partnership with Kaiser Health News.
They’re succeeding. They’re succeeding.
The anti-vaccine movement has had many successes. This culminated in the Supreme Court’s June 24 Supreme Court ruling that ended the federal constitutional right of abortion. This ruling is up to the states to decide. In the next few months, up to 26 states will likely ban or severely limit abortion.
Anti-vaccination groups claim “My Body, My Choice” and abortion rights groups dissociate themselves from it, marking an astonishing annexation political messaging.
Lisa Ikemoto (a law professor at University of California-Davis Feminist Research Institute) said that “It’s an extremely savvy co-option of reproduction rights and the movement’s framing of this issue.” It strengthens the meanings of choice in anti-vaccine and detracts form the reproductive rights meaning.
Ikemoto stated that framing the decision not to vaccinate in a single, personal way can also make it difficult to see the public health implications. Vaccines are meant to protect not only one person, but a whole community by stopping the spread and spreading of disease to others.
Celinda Lake, a Democratic strategist, and pollster, is based in Washington, D.C. She stated that “My Body, My Choice”, is not polling well with Democrats due to the fact that they associate it with antivaccination sentiment.
She said, “What is really special about this is that you rarely see one side’s bases adopting the message from the other side aEUR” and succeeding.” This is what makes it so fascinating.
Jodi Hicks is president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California. She acknowledged that the misuse of the terminology for abortion has been detrimental to the movement. Hicks stated that “in this moment, it is to co-opt that message and distract from what we’re doing and use it to spread misinformation. It’s frustrating and it’s disappointing.”
She stated that the phrase was being discarded by the movement. She said that even in legal abortion, some women are unable to “choose” to have one due to financial or other obstacles. Hicks stated that the movement now places more emphasis on access to healthcare, using catchphrases like “Bans Off Our Bodies” and “Say Abortion”.
Jennifer Reich, a sociology professor at University of Colorado-Denver who wrote a book on why parents don’t want to give vaccines to their children, says that vaccination has not always been so political. Parents were concerned about the school vaccine requirements in the 1980s, which led to increased opposition to vaccines. Reich stated that while those parents claimed they didn’t have sufficient information on vaccines’ potential adverse effects, it was not partisan at the time.
After a measles epidemic linked to Disneyland in 2014 and 2015, the issue made its way onto the political stage. California legislators attempted to ban parents from claiming personal beliefs exemptions for required childhood vaccines. Opponents organized around the ideas of “medical choice and medical freedom.” Reich stated that those opponents came from all political parties.
COVID was then introduced. From the beginning, the Trump administration politicized this pandemic with stay-at-home orders and masks. Reich stated that the strategy was implemented by Republican leaders and white evangelicals on the ground. Reich also said that they argued against vaccine mandates at a time when COVID vaccines were only theoretical aEUR.” They scare people with rhetoric about personal choice and images from vaccine passports.
They gained momentum despite an apparent inconsistency. She said that often, the same people who oppose vaccination requirements aEUR”, arguing that it’s a matter for choice, aEUR”, are also against abortion rights.
Reich stated, “What’s really different is that it’s become highly-partisan in the past two or three years.”
Joshua Coleman is the leader of V is for Vaccine. This group opposes mandated vaccines. He explained that he uses the phrase strategically depending upon where he is working.
Coleman stated, “In a State or a City that is more prolife, they’re going to not connect with that messaging. They don’t believe fully bodily autonomy, they don’t believe it.”
He does however, take his “My Body, My Choice” rhetoric to California, where it is most effective. For example, the annual Women’s March, where sometimes he can get feminists to reconsider his viewpoint.
According to Alyssa Wolf, a cognitive language specialist based in Oakland, Calif., the perception of “choice” has changed over the years. She said that the word “choice” now conjures up an image of an individual making a decision without affecting the wider community. Wulf stated that it can make an abortion seeker seem self-centered and a vaccine rejector appear to be making a personal choice about their health.
Wulf stated that anti-vaccination activists go beyond linguistics and play politics by trying to insult abortion rights groups with their words. Wulf stated, “I believe there’s a bit of an ‘effy’ in that.” “We’re going take your phrase.”
Tom Blodget, a Chico, Calif., retired Spanish-language instructor, wore a “My Body, My Choice”, shirt aEUR” with an image and cartoon syringe aEUR at the Defeat The Mandates Rally in Los Angeles. He said it was an ironic act meant to expose the hypocrisy of Democrats that support both abortion and mandated vaccines. Blodget stated that he was “pro-life” because he believes COVID vaccines were not immunizations, but a form gene therapy.
Blodget and other anti-vaccination activists believe that there is no consistency in this position. Blodget and other anti-vaccination activists say that abortion is not a personal decision about one’s health, but rather a crime.
Blodget stated that women can have an abortion as it is their bodies. Blodget said, “If that’s a valid thing to a lot people, then why should I have an injection of some concoction?”
A week later, and almost 400 miles away from Sacramento, state legislators heard testimony about bills regarding abortion and COVID vaccinations. Two protests, one for and one against vaccine mandates, met. Truckers representing the “People’s Convoy,” an organization that opposes COVID mandates and has been touring the country spreading its message of medical freedom, testified against a bill which would prevent police from investigating stillbirths or miscarriages as murders. Anti-abortion activists gathered to oppose a bill updating reporting requirements for the state’s vaccination registry.
“My Body, My Choice,” was everywhere: Children petting police horses at the Capitol wore Tshirts with the slogan and truckers observing a sword dance performed above their heads.
Two tough legislative proposals that would have mandated COVID vaccinations for schoolchildren and most workers were already abandoned without a vote. Unpopular was a bill that would allow children 12 years old and over to receive COVID vaccines, but without parental consent.
Since then, lawmakers have diluted the measure by raising the minimum age from 15 to 15. It awaits critical votes. They now focus their attention on the most recent political disaster: abortion.
KHN (Kaiser Health News), a national newsroom, produces in-depth journalism on health issues. It is an independent editorial program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation).
