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If abortion rights activists pin their case on bodily autonomy, does the same hold true for anti-vaxxers? While both sides shout “My body, my choice!”, those against vaccines mandates are ignoring an extremely important issue in this battle.
If you don’t take advantage of access to a safe, readily available vaccine, you contribute to the spread of a sickness, which kills people. If you deprive a woman of reproductive rights, you also deprive her of access to potentially life-saving procedures, which kills people.
Nobody is storming houses in the middle of the night jabbing shots into arms willy nilly. Those supporting vaccine mandates are simply saying that should you choose to participate in society, you also need to accept your moral responsibility to protect the health and safety of the other members. When you take away a woman’s right to choose, you even criminalize those choices, you put every part of her in danger, her mental health, her ability to provide for herself, even her life.
One removes danger. The other amplifies it. This is a false equivalency.
This ongoing debate that equates abortion and vaccine mandates is unfolding as the Supreme Court considers a case that could overturn Roe v. Wade. That 1973 landmark decision by the nation’s highest court granted women the right to choose whether to have an abortion. Court watchers believe the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. Earlier this month, the court upheld a Texas law that restricts women from getting an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. Yes, the court also allowed a lawsuit over that restriction to proceed, but if you listen to what Supreme Court Justice Amy Comey Barrett has to say about abortion and vaccine mandates, it’s pretty clear where things are going. Quite frankly, we should expect more from a Supreme Court Justice than someone who uses their position of power to troll the left.
