Detroit mom sent to jail for not vaccinating her kid . . . but there's more to the story

Some of you have been watching and waiting for the day when this would happen to someone, and very unhelpful media headlines seem to be screaming out that the day has come: "Metro Detroit mom sentence to 7 days in jail for not vaccinating her child", screams WXYZ-TV.

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You knew it was coming! The government is now forcing us to put things into the bodies of our children on threat of incarceration! Freedom is dead! It's time for outrage! Except, er . . . this isn't the case the headlines are making it out to be. Michigan has not passed a law proscribing jail time for refusing to vaccinate your kids, and Rebecca Bredow has not sentenced under any such statute. What we're really dealing with here is a custody dispute between Bredow and her ex-husband:

Rebecca Bredow had a hearing in Pontiac Wednesday to decide if she will go to jail for refusing to vaccinate her son. She was sentenced for contempt of court. The mother of two had one week to get her son vaccinated, and refused to comply with court orders and agreements dating back to November 2016 saying she would vaccinate the boy. Bredow's ex-husband wants their son vaccinated, but she is the primary caregiver for their son. Now, he will have temporary custody to take the child to get vaccinated while she goes to jail. "I would rather sit behind bars standing up for what I believe in, than giving in to something I strongly don't believe in," Bredow said.

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Bredow may be very sincere in her objection to vaccinations, at least at present, but she agreed to a consent order to bring the child up to date on all his vaccinations. And if you view the video and listen to what the judge has to say to her, you'll find that she apparently violated quite a few other elements of the consent order. My primary reason for writing about this is the media headlines are very misleading on this story. They're creating the impression, which is entirely false, that Ms. Bredow was arrested, charged and sentence solely for not vaccinating her kids. That is not the case, and there is no such law on the books that would have even made this possible. She is going to jail for contempt of court because she agreed in a deal with her husband, accepted by the court, to get the vaccinations. Then she refused to do so. If you're an anti-vaxxer and you're just waiting for the martyr to the cause who personifies the lack of parental freedom, I want to make sure you understand Rebecca Bredow is not the one you're waiting for. That said, I do have some sympathy for people who hold the position she does. I am personally not an anti-vaxxer, and all my son's vaccinations are up to date and have been since he was born. But I don't like the idea that some people would have the government force you to do this, even though I understand there are public health implications to not doing it.

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I'm not sure what the right answer is, but it seems the left's answer is always to mandate that people do what the left wants them to do in the name of the public interest or whatever. You may be wrong in your fears about vaccinations, but it should still be your choice. Just because "science" says this or that doesn't mean your choices should be dictated accordingly. So I do have some concern we may see the day when a law is passed that says you can go to jail for not vaccinating your child, and that someone be sentenced accordingly. I don't like the idea one bit, and I join with you in keeping an eye on the issue. If it happens to someone, I will be among the first to come to that person's defense regardless of whether I agree with their actual position on vaccinations. But Rebecca Bredow is not that person. She's just in a dispute with her ex-husband, and she's certainly not the first person to get in hot water over one of those.

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