opinion: why using the language of abortion rights for vaccine mandates is bogus
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a crowd attends an anti-vaccine mandate protest in front of the in front of the cornwall community hospital in cornwall, ont. on sept. 9, 2021. (francis racine / cornwall standard-freeholder / postmedia network)
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last week, canadian actress evangeline lilly posted several photos to instagram with a caption about her vaccine views. she spent the previous weekend in washington, d.c. “to support bodily sovereignty,” she said, seemingly referring to robert f. kennedy jr.’s anti-vaccination march. (yes, the same one where he implied that the unvaccinated have fewer rights than anne frank did during the holocaust.) she also expressed support for “canadian truckers… rallying for their cross-country, peaceful convoy.” (her instagram was posted before the convoy took place, but she hasn’t since mentioned the nazi or confederate flags that were a part of that protest.)
under artful, dramatic black-and-white photos, and lilly used the terminology of abortion rights to describe the fight against vaccine mandates: “i was pro-choice before covid and i am still pro-choice today.”
she’s not the only person who has linguistically tied anti-vaccine belief to reproductive rights. vaccine opponents around the world have used similar phrases —”my body, my choice” signs have been spotted at many anti-mask protests, in canada and elsewhere. yes, on a very basic level, refusing a vaccine is a choice you can make on the basis of bodily autonomy if you want to. but the comparison is a faulty one, one that’s intellectually dishonest and insulting to the people who have fought and who continue to fight for reproductive justice. https://www.instagram.com/p/czpq4hllfcl/
unwanted pregnancies happen, some for mundane reasons like unprotected sex or a broken condom; others are traumatic, like rape. in canada, it’s estimated more than 180,000 pregnancies are unplanned each year. in 2019, there were roughly 84,000 abortions — a vital medical procedure for those who face the exacerbation of health issues or even death should a pregnancy be allowed to progress.
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it’s also a vital service for people who, for whatever reason, do not want to have a child. according to action canada for sexual health & rights, people may choose not carry a pregnancy to term because of their social, economic, or health circumstances. some may have experienced sexual assault, or have learned the fetus has a life-threatening health issue. perhaps they are experiencing domestic violence. plus, we know that limiting access to abortions kills women, either from dangerous pregnancies or botched attempts to end the pregnancy through unsafe means.
why opposing vaccine mandates is not the same as being pro-choice
lilly and her ilk want to liken the ability to choose to terminate a pregnancy with the right to choose whether or not to get vaccinated. that’s not even an apples-to-oranges comparison – it’s apples to mack trucks.
until they prove that a vaccine mandate can kill, it’s a flimsy argument. the freedom to get an abortion, in a place where the procedure is safe, legal and accessible, can literally be life-saving. the freedom not to get vaccinated means you can’t access certain non-essential services because you’re much more likely to get other people sick. those two premises are wildly different.
abortion rights are currently under attack in many parts of the u.s. the strict laws governing abortion in poland are being questioned after a woman died of septic shock after doctors refused to remove a dead fetus from her uterus. there’s a total abortion ban in nicaragua. if bodily autonomy were these protesters’ major concern, surely they’d also protesting those laws. but while they’re happy to linguistically invoke the severity of those situations, they’re using that language to protest the fact that they can’t see the new spiderman in theatres.
the persecution complex that the anti-mandate crowd has is strong. lilly says nobody should be forced to inject anything against their will, under threat of “violent attack,” “arrest or detention without trial,” and “starvation,” among other horrendous outcomes.
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what is she talking about? who’s being violently attacked for being unvaccinated? there are stories about unvaccinated people spitting in health care providers’ faces, but i’ve yet to come across any violence being perpetrated in the other direction. “arrest or deportation?” what laws, canadian or american, is she referring to? it’s not illegal to choose not to get vaccinated. and not being allowed to eat at indoor restaurants is hardly “starving”: you can buy groceries, cook, get takeout, or — if you live in ontario — eat on a patio.
mandated covid vaccines are, in fact, part of a long tradition of inoculation being required to participate in society. ontario, for instance, requires elementary and high school students to have proof of immunization against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, meningococcal disease, and chickenpox (if they’re born after 2010). this isn’t new, or unusual.
in fact, the number of people who lose their jobs for refusing to get vaccinated is fairly low — for instance, almost 98 per cent of federal employees, one of the first groups to be mandated, are vaccinated.
and many of the people who do lose their jobs will almost certainly try to make a human rights case of it, if that’s a possibility: the alberta human rights commission, which used to receive about 15 to 20 calls a day is now getting up to 100, its director told the globe and mail — most are about vaccine mandates.
people lose their jobs for irresponsible beliefs all the time. if i believed it were my right to yell at my boss, or skip work twice a week, or take no precautions against getting people sick with a potentially fatal disease, i would expect to lose my job. i have the legal freedom to do things, sure, but there are limits to those freedoms meant to protect the freedoms of the people around me.
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fundamentally, it’s about having options. like lilly, i consider myself firmly pro-choice. she doesn’t have to get the vaccine, and neither does anyone else. the only thing preventing them from eating in a restaurant or going to a bar is their own freedom of choice.
maija kappler is a reporter and editor at healthing. you can reach her at mkappler@postmedia.com
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