This is a speech I gave at a rally for medical freedom at the capitol in Salem, Oregon. A transcript of the speech can be found below the video.

I want to say a few words regarding the recent push for mandatory Covid vaccinations, happening here in our state, as well as in other places around the world. We’re seeing businesses mandate Covid vaccines for their employees. We’re seeing universities announce that they will require Covid vaccines for students, staff, and faculty. And we’ve seen Oregon Governor Kate Brown issue an executive order requiring Oregonians to continue wearing face masks in indoor establishments, unless their Covid vaccination status can be verified with a vaccine certificate or vaccine passport.

The issue of mandatory vaccination has little to do with being pro-vaccine or anti-vaccine. At its core, this is about bodily autonomy and informed consent. Who gets to decide what is injected into your body? Is it you? Do you get to decide what goes into your body? Is it your body, your choice?

Or do corporations get to decide what goes into your body? Does your employer get to decide? Do schools and universities get to decide what goes into your body? Does the government get to decide what you have to inject into your body, in order for you to have the same rights as others? This is, in essence, a human rights issue. And if people are discriminated against based on their vaccination status, then it’s a civil rights issue as well.

I want to read to you an excerpt from the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. It states the following:

“Any preventive, diagnostic, or therapeutic medical intervention is only to be carried out with the prior, free and informed consent of the person concerned, based on adequate information. The consent should, where appropriate, be express and may be withdrawn by the person concerned at any time and for any reason without disadvantage or prejudice… In no case should a collective community agreement or the consent of a community leader or other authority substitute for an individual’s informed consent.”

In other words, policies that seek to mandate vaccines are contrary to the foundational principle of informed consent in medical decision making. And let’s face it, people intuitively know that good medicine does not need to be forced down their throats, or coerced into their arms.

Mandated medicine is a disgrace, now and forevermore. It will always be a disgrace. We know this from history, and that is why we have signed treaty after treaty edifying the paramount importance of informed consent in medicine. There is no more basic liberty than the freedom to choose what goes inside our own bodies. And if we lose that, then we are no longer a free people. We will have to get vaccine after vaccine, booster shot after booster shot, year after year, and we will not be able to say ‘no’ without fear of losing our jobs, being denied an education, and being treated like a second-class citizen.

Mandatory vaccination policies are an extremely slippery slope, and we are standing at the edge of a precipice. Make no mistake, this is a historic time. What happens from here will go on to determine the fate of those who come after us. So, I implore you, one and all. Let us stand together united for bodily autonomy. Let us stand together united for informed consent. And let us denounce those who would use coercion to get someone to inject something into their body against their will. This is your body, and your choice. Thank you for standing for medical freedom and informed consent.

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