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MCC-FHC Spring 2001 Newsletter

Missouri Citizens Coalition
For Freedom In Health Care

Spring 2001 Newsletter

"All too, will bear in mind this sacred principal,...that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression." -Thomas Jefferson

Inside this Issue:

FREEDOM AND VIGILANCE 

NEWS RELEASE
CLASS ACTION SUIT AIMS TO RESTORE PARENTAL RIGHTS
 

MISSOURI LEGISLATION 2001  

ALTERNATIVE HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION  

VACCINE POLICE IN ST. LOUIS!  

GREAT TURNOUT, DISCUSSION AT ST. LOUIS BORN IN THE USA SHOWING   

VACCINATION: THE HIDDEN TRUTH VIDEOS FOR SALE  

MCC-FHC WISH LIST  

RYAN'S STORY: SHINGLES  

OPINION CORNER: 
  NEW CCHR BOOKLET EXPOSES PSYCHIATRY AS A GLOBAL FAILURE   
  Stigmatizing Children & Creating a Drug-Addicted Culture

FREEDOM AND VIGILANCE

By Fran Norton, RN

In March, here in Missouri, in Ballwin to be specific, a mother was visited by the police for not bringing her 7-month-old to the pediatrician for his scheduled vaccines. She was then visited by DFS and told they will do a family tree and she will be watched.

Recently, I received a call from a mother whose husband adopted her children. When they went to change the childrens' names on their social security cards, the SS Administration would not accept anything other than the childrens' "immunization records" or a copy of their insurance card. They would not accept the original birth certificate of the children! Who gave the SS Administration authority to access medical records? How do they have authority to demand immunization records or a medical insurance card? How far has the SS Administration's role expanded? For those of you not really engaged in getting out there and letting our legislators know what's going on, I urge you to do it because if you know about it and do nothing, Who else will speak up?

To my legislators: Attorney General John Ashcroft, Senators Kit Bond, and Jean Carnahan, Representatives Kenny Hulshof, and Todd Akin, Senators Ted House, Bill Kenny, John Loudon, Mike Gibbons, Sarah Steelman, David Klarich, Chuck Gross, and Peter Kinder, Representatives Jon Dolan, Susan Phillips, Joan Barry, Harold Selby, Roy Holand, Judy Berkstresser, Chuck Portwood, and Rod Jetton; Please recognize this abuse of power and do what you can do to remedy this situation, particularly when you are asked to legislate more power to these bureaucratic agencies. They are enslaving the people - not serving them! Please consider proposing amendments to neuter these agencies in their aggressive, invasive assault against innocent citizens. The 1st mother just wanted time to investigate the hearings in Washington about the Autism connection and high cumulative levels of mercury and vaccine administration.

To our State legislators: Please support legislation to restore the philosophical exemption to Missouri citizens so these injustices cannot occur! To my Federal Legislators; Please support the state level in the above and also support HR 1003 and HR 5327. Please respond to my plea for help here in Missouri. It seems to me that these agencies are overstepping their authority.  ¨

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NEWS RELEASE
CLASS ACTION SUIT AIMS TO RESTORE PARENTAL RIGHTS

An organized effort to secure the constitutional protection due Missouri's parents has begun.

For several years the state of Missouri has denied parents the right to make medical decisions for their children in the area of vaccinations. Although medical and religious exemptions to the state's mandatory vaccine laws are available, the state still exercises its police power to force parents into accepting the administration of vaccines to their children. Medical exemptions are difficult to get and many parents can not in good conscience claim a religious exemption even though they do not think vaccines are in the best interest of their children's health.

The act of mandating vaccines is legally recognized as an infringement of the constitutional rights of individuals. Such infringements have historically been deemed within the appropriate police powers of the state when the infringement is minimal and when that infringement is considered essential to accomplish some great necessary good for society as a whole. The landmark Supreme Court decision, Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905), was written within the context of an "epidemic threatening the safety of all" - smallpox.

The court found in favor of the defendant, the state, as they deemed the state's claims to be within the principle outlined above. An excerpt from the court's opinion reads:

There is, of course, a sphere within which the individual may assert the supremacy of his own will and rightfully dispute the authority of any human government, especially of any free government existing under a written constitution, to interfere with the exercise of that will. But it is equally true that in every well-ordered society charged with the duty of conserving the safety of its members the rights of the individual in respect of his liberty may at times, under the pressure of great dangers, be subjected to such restraint, to be enforced by reasonable regulations, as the safety of the general public may demand. (emphasis added, RC)

We believe that there is no "great danger" to society from any of the diseases for which vaccines are presently mandated and those mandates are, therefore, unconstitutional infringements on the rights of individuals.

A case will be made for the belief that a "great danger" would develop in the absence of the vaccines. Of course that is highly speculative in most cases and is definitely not true, by anyone's estimation, in the case of tetanus since tetanus is not communicable.

The significance of this case should not be underestimated. It will likely not only affect Missourians, but also residents of other states. Likewise, it will likely affect parental rights in other areas, like to the right decide other types of medical treatment and the right to educate children at home. Winning this case will help to reestablish the (previously) long held American principle that the state have a "compelling interest" before it infringes upon personal liberty.

We have enlisted the aid of an attorney who is experienced in the litigation of vaccine cases. He is interested in our cause and is willing to absorb much of the cost of litigation. In spite of his generosity, we still need to raise about $20,000 to prosecute the case. In addition, this will be a class action suit, so participants who are willing to be named on the suit are needed.

Please consider participation in both ways. If you are interested, please contact Ron Calzone at (573) 759-7556 or ron@mofirst.org.    ¨

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MISSOURI LEGISLATION 2001

The 2001 Legislative Session is at an end here in Missouri. This year we fought (for the second year in a row) the Hepatitis A vaccine mandate for our children, House Bill 317. For now, Missouri children will NOT be mandated to take this vaccine. While HB317 did make it out of committee, it did not get to the House Floor for debate. There were a couple pieces of legislation that included the Philosophical Exemption for Missouri's school children (HB317 being one of them), but these bills did not find their way into law.

The biggest news this session is the passage of Missouri Senate Resolution 280, which supports federal efforts to extend the statute of limitations for lawsuits involving vaccine-related injuries. This resolution also acknowledges injuries and chronic illness associated with vaccines. An identical resolution was introduced in the house, but it failed to get out of committee.

It may be the end of the Missouri Legislative Session, but we still have the Missouri Department of Health proposing varicella vaccine (chickenpox) for all day care children. This change WILL BECOME LAW if we don't appeal to Governor Holden to stop it. This change is becoming law without citizen or legislative hearings!

PLEASE CONTACT Governor Bob Holden and tell him MISSOURI CITIZENS DON'T WANT A CHICKEN POX VACCINE MANDATE FOR ANY CHILD!

Send your letters to:
Missouri Capitol Bldg Room 216
Jefferson City, MO 65102-0720
573-751-3222, Fax: 573-751-1495, constituentaffairs@mail.gov.state.mo.us

For more information and direct links to the above pieces of legislation visit http://hometown.aol.com/mccfhc/events.htm   ¨

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"eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" -Thomas Jefferson

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ALTERNATIVE HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION

-by Heather Reynolds

Last year Minnesota passed the Freedom of Alternative Health Care bill, which allows people to give and receive alternative health treatment without fear of persecution. Florida recently passed similar legislation. This is really encouraging!

Also, we have their experience to work from. I have been in contact with Kathy from Minnesota and she is willing to help us in any way she can. I need approximately 6-8 people who will be willing to work on this with me. It would be nice to have at least one lawyer and at least two folks who don't mind traveling to the state capitol to lobby legislators.

Please email me at hreynolds@homeopathyhome.net if you would be willing work on this terrific cause!!

Please look over the Minnesota information at http://www.minnesotanaturalhealth.org   ¨

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VACCINE POLICE IN ST. LOUIS!

In March a Ballwin woman called her son's pediatrician and cancelled his scheduled appointment for vaccine administration. The nurse asked why and the mother replied that she was concerned about vaccine ingredients and wanted a chance to do some research. That afternoon she received a call from the Division of Family Services and was told a DFS worker would be visiting her house because of a report they'd received - child neglect and endangerment for not vaccinating.

This lady and her mother waited all day for the DFS worker who didn't arrive. Instead, two police officers showed up. The police were very intimidating. They said over and over that the immunizations were required by law. They said the doctor's office was obviously concerned about her canceling the vaccine appointment. They said repeatedly that they were only there to make sure everything was OK, but that she would have to get her son his immunizations, because it is the LAW. The officers left with the comment "we're going to let DFS know we were here and that you are refusing to get his shots".

After some phone calls from Missouri state Senators to the Division of Family Services, this case was dropped. Somewhat. DFS insisted on doing a multigenerational family tree on this child anyway. In short, the family is being watched. All this because a conscientious family made a decision to postpone a medical procedure now mandated by the state. What's next for Missouri Citizens?   ¨

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GREAT TURNOUT, DISCUSSION
AT ST. LOUIS BORN IN THE USA SHOWING

-from the Friends of Missouri Midwives January 2001 Newsletter, reprinted with permission

"Three out of every four Americans becomes a parent, yet most of us have never really considered what having a "normal" birth means. Is a "typical" birth, as we experience it in the US, "normal?" How much technology is appropriate for the low-risk woman? When does medical intervention help or harm? How do economic and legal factors limit women's choices of where and how to give birth?

"Born in the USA is the first public television documentary to take an in-depth look at low-risk childbirth in America. The film profiles three caregivers: an obstetrician working at a teaching hospital, a licensed midwife attending home births, and a certified nurse-midwife bridging both worlds in an urban, out-of-hospital birth center.

"By examining current birth practices in America, Born in the USA raises questions about technology, safety, and quality of care, and it challenges us to take control of getting the kind of care we want for ourselves and our families." (Jarmel and Schneider, Producers, Born in the USA, viewer's guide)

An MCC-FHC and FoMM jointly sponsored public showing of Born in the USA took place on 12 January 2001 in the Saint Louis County Library. We had a super turnout with about seventy parents, children, childbirth professionals and concerned citizens in attendance. A lively panel discussion ensued. The panel was comprised of three members: Michael Vlastos, MD, father of four, OB/GYN specializing in perinatology; Judy Breitenfeld, RN, mother, childbirth educator, doula, and homebirth assistant; and FoMM's very own president, Margaret Henderson, who is alsoa doula, mother of two, childbirth educator, and registered nurse.

The questions and discussion seemed to be of two general themes. One included observations and comments made about the birth settings portrayed in the film. Many mothers (and fathers) shared their own personal birth experiences. The differences in hospital and out-of-hospital care were discussed. Many of those in attendance felt that women birthing in hospitals often lose their autonomy upon entering into the role of patient. A number of mothers shared stories of fighting with unsupportive and sometimes hostile medical professionals for the power to make their own choices for birth. These women did succeed, proving that one can have a great and/or unmedicated birthing experience in the hospital. Still, there was somewhat less peace than would have been ideal.

There was also discussion of the differences in the Medical and Midwifery models of care. The issues of discriminating use of technology and the propensity for hospital staff to "do stuff" (rather than let birth progress on its own) were brought up, as was the difficulty in finding homebirth or birth center care. (Saint Louis has one homebirth doctor and not a birthing center within two hours' drive.) Another important issue that came up was discrimination experienced by those choosing homebirths. One mother shared being dropped by her pediatrician after birthing at home. The doctor stated homebirth being "child abuse" as reason. A father shared being dropped by all insurance companies one day after the homebirth of his child. The other path the discussion took was a political one, questioning what had to happen for a change to take place and what we, as citizens for midwifery, can do to facilitate that change.

To contact the Friends of Missouri Midwives call Margaret Henderson at 314-282-2478, write to FoMM, PO box 341, Columbia, MO 65205, email them at fomm@tjs.org, or visit their website at http://birth.tjs.org/~fomm.   ¨

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VACCINATION: THE HIDDEN TRUTH
VIDEOS FOR SALE

MCC-FHC has a few copies of the video that is being featured at our July 2001 Public Event, VACCINATION: THE HIDDEN TRUTH. If you would like to own a copy of this excellent video, contact the Coalition with your request. 314-968-8755 or mccfhc@aol.com   ¨

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MCC-FHC WISH LIST

  • A Newsletter Editor. Our current editor has resigned as of the end of this year. Many, many thanks to Marianne Klein for a job well done!
  • A Laser Printer.
  • People in every Missouri district to write a letter to their state representative and senator requesting legislative support for a personal philosophical exemption to Missouri's vaccine law.
  • Enough regular donations to continue sending the MCC-FHC newsletter out to the entire mailing list. The editorial labor is donated, but the postage, printing and paper expenses are another matter.
  • A member / liaison to meet with other Missouri grassroots organizations regarding similar topics of interest. This person / people would have contact with other groups such as 'Patients in Arms' and 'Concerned Women of America' and occasionally attend their events and meetings. By networking with other groups we expand our possibilities while educating others about the need for a state philosophical exemption.
  • Area co-ordinators to set up MCC-FHC sponsored informational events in other parts of the state.
  • Volunteers to co-ordinate and advertise MCC-FHC public events. Due to lack of help in this area, monthly events are no longer scheduled beyond September of this year.
  • Funds to print and mail out event notices. Todd and Sandra Baker have donated and paid for these postcards (and postage!) a number of times, but it is difficult for any member to continue funding this project alone. THANK YOU, Todd and Sandra! These postcards dramatically improve the turnout at our events and consequently help to educate more Missouri citizens about heath care rights in our state.
  • HUNDREDS of MCC-FHC members to attend committee hearings in Jefferson City when philosophical exemption legislation is being considered. Oral testimony and written testimony are valuable, but so is a body count! Car pools are usually arranged in advance.
  • A "logo" for MCC-FHC to be used on letterhead, T-shirts, coffee mugs, etc...just think of the fund raising possibilities!
  • Volunteers to co-ordinate and operate informational booths (and funds to pay for such booths and printing materials) at local events such as the Family Expo, Earth Day, etc.   ¨

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RYAN'S STORY: SHINGLES

-by Ryan's father

The doctors have yet to isolate a virus in any of the samples taken. However, it was diagnosed twice by his doctor through visual examination. A third outbreak was diagnosed by the head of the department of infectious diseases at St. Louis Children's Hospital, again through visual examination.

The specialist at Children's Hospital has done some immunology work and determined that for some odd reason my son has displayed a number of detection cells, which only appear after infection. However he has not developed any anti-bodies for the chicken-pox virus. He tells me that this is extremely unusual.

The specialist is quite perplexed. He will be filing an additional VEARS report, after a second round of immunology blood work. He says that, if the blood work verifies the results he got in the first round, then he can, with 100%, certainty say that the vaccine is responsible. Either by the fact that Ryan received a bad lot, or that it is some other bad reaction to the vaccine.

My son's doctor says that he has seen 2 cases like Ryan. Ryan's daycare has seen 2 cases like Ryan. And a lady who responded to a post I put on the MSNBC BBS stated she was from Missouri and her child had an adverse reaction as well. I have to wonder if there are some bad lots floating around Missouri.

I hit the Merck web site and navigated to their Chicken-Pox vaccine links. They have about 15-20 pages of statistics and marketing information. If you sift through their argument for vaccination against chicken pox, you can actually use their own stats against them. For example, consider these points;

  • The number of people they (Merck/CDC) claim are infected every year (Naturally)
  • The number of series cases or deaths that occur through natural infection. (About 1 death per state per year)
  • How many people will be infected through vaccine.
  • How many children that will die or suffer conditions like my son's (As a result of vaccine reaction)

Furthermore, if you examine their sited cases of Shingles in the 90's (primarily of children), you will also notice a sharp increase since the approval of this vaccine. However, they only use these stats to promote their vaccine. They present the stats as a scare tactic "X number of
children have suffered from Shingles since 1995 - an increase of " (not a quote) Etc... But they don't point out the time frame the vaccine was released. I had never heard of Shingles till after 1995. I heard of a few cases after '95 but before my son's vaccine, mostly in adults. I never researched it and did not know at the time that it was the varicella (chicken-pox) virus. After my son's breakout the daycare said "We have seen a couple of cases of this since 1995, and had NEVER seen it prior to '95. I believe this live virus is actually spreading through the unvaccinated population. The problem is I only have personal experiences, and information gathering through conversations with acquaintances and friends.

You can only conclude that the benefits of this vaccine does not merit it. However, if you use the monitory cost benefit of this vaccine you MAY find that it is beneficial, in terms of savings from lost work time and convenience to parents, not to mention the large amounts of money being made by the manufacturer of the vaccines. But hey, if these are the criteria being used for the justification of risking our childrens health, then it is a sad day in America.   ¨

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"..If the State can tag, track down and force citizens against their will to be injected with biologicals of unknown toxicity today, there will be no limit on what individual freedoms the State can take away in the name of the greater good tomorrow." -Barbara Loe Fisher, NVIC Co-Founder

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OPINION CORNER

The views expressed in the following article is not necessarily those of MCC-FHC. It is offered for the interest it may have to our readers.

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NEW CCHR BOOKLET EXPOSES PSYCHIATRY AS A GLOBAL FAILURE
Stigmatizing Children & Creating a Drug-Addicted Culture

-submitted by Moritz Farbstein

Why have more than five million American children been forced to take an addictive, psychiatric stimulant drug which is biochemically similar to cocaine? Did you know that the Journal of the American Medical Association reported the 2-4 year-old prescription rate for this mind-bending drug doubled between 1991 and 1995? Why was there a ten-fold increase in the number of newer antidepressant prescriptions for preschoolers between 1993 and 1997?

Is there something wrong with this picture, or do we all now believe that compassionate caring for children equals heavy drugging from the earliest possible moment? Of course we don't, but someone surely does. And of course there is something wrong, but it seems far too few are able to define it.

A new free publication by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), the international watchdog for mental health established by the Church of Scientology in 1969, promises to change that, and a whole lot more. Called Psychiatry: A Human Rights Abuse and Global Failure, the booklet in part, charges that psychiatry has created an international, multi-million dollar child drugging culture through the invention of such stigmatizing labels and fraudulent diagnoses as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD as it is widely known.

A growing army of critics of ADHD and child drugging include the late Dr. Sydney Walker III, neurologist and psychiatrist, who wrote in 1998, "Hyperactivity is not a dis-ease. It's a hoax perpetrated by doctors who have no idea what's really wrong with these children." In fact, ADHD is now the subject of major class-action lawsuits which allege that the American Psychiatric Association and a psychiatric advocacy group, conspired to create a market for the prescribed stimulant treatment drug, in order to expand its use and thereby sales. CCHR, which for the past three years has been holding public hearings into the epidemic of psychiatric labeling and drugging of children, says the problem is more wide-spread than is being reported.

Ms. Jan Eastgate, International President of CCHR, and a 23-year veteran of mental health reform, says, "Psychiatrists ordering parents to put their children on drugs assures us of a deepening drug culture. Today's addictive, psychiatric drugs become tomorrow's street problem, with students selling them for up to $5 a pill, and crushing and snorting them to get high."

"However, with children one-year old and younger now being prescribed antidepressants, the risk of pre-schoolers later suffering irreversible damage to their nervous system - a condition called Tardive Dyskinesia - is also a serious threat that parents need to be made aware of."

CCHR's booklet isolates psychiatry's billing bible, the Diagnostic Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM) as a pivotal reason for this explosion in psychotropic drug use. Arrived at by what psychiatrists call "consensus," which in reality is no more scientific or sophisticated than a vote of powerful insider hands, the DSM legitimized ADHD, which has garnered millions in government appropriations for psychiatry through its assault on the youth "market."

But this abuse is not limited to children. As the booklet further reveals, the DSM mush-roomed from 112 mental disorders in 1952 to a record 374 so-called disorders in 1994. Margaret Hagen, author of Whores Of The Court, summarily dismisses the DSM: "Given their farcical 'empirical' procedures for arriving at new disorders with their associated symptoms lists, where does the American Psychiatric Association get off claiming a scientific, research-based foundation for its diagnostic manual? This is nothing more than science by decree. They say it is science, so it is."

Flanking this has been psychiatry's "anti-stigma" campaign through which they plan to garner billions more dollars for psychiatry. Federal legislation introduced last May and called the "Mental Health Early Intervention, Treatment and Prevention Act of 2000," asks for more than $585 million in a bare-faced push to have the mental health agenda integrated into practically every government sponsored or financed public health activity throughout the United States. It includes screening children for mental illness in schools, thus promoting a biological approach, assuring us of more children being bathed in psychotropic drugs that will result in, as psychiatrist and author, David Kaiser states, "a growing number of over-diagnosed, over-medicated and disarticulated people less able to define and control their own identities and lives...."

CCHR urges governments, schools, hospitals and colleges to review funding of psychiatric programs, studies and curricula and to demand accountability for the $80 billion already spent federally on the country's mental health budget. With more than $40 billion in medical insurance fraud committed annually within the mental health industry, accountability has become the watchword.

"Accountability," Eastgate notes, "means results, and that means less insanity, drug abuse, crime and violence in society, and less reliance upon powerful psychotropic drugs or other psychiatric treatments which
simply damage the brain and nervous system."

These are but a few of the numerous damning perspectives provided in this latest CCHR publication about the very real dangers and risks in psychiatry and thereby, the mental health industry today. From psychiatry's lackluster history, the savagery of its treatments, its abuse of basic human rights, its catastrophic political experiments, its heavily-funded but unworkable programs, to the degradation in its institutions even today, CCHR's message is very clear - psychiatry is
a global failure.

Contact: Moritz Farbstein, (314) 727-8307   ¨

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MCCFHC is a grassroots organization. We have no paid lobbyist or positions.
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We do not have government-funded budgets like the CDC or Department Of Health. 

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