March 28, 2014 http://www.inquisitr.com/1191522/parents-blackmailed-by-doctor-consent-to-vaccine-or-we-take-your-newborn/
Aliea Bidwell and Ben Gray were as excited as any other couple when their baby boy was born. Vaccine blackmail was the furthest thought from their minds. But because a pediatrician on call didn’t like their decision to refuse a vaccine, she threatened to kidnap their newborn (through legal channels, of course), if they did not consent on day one to something they neither wanted nor felt was worth the risks. It was vaccine blackmail. They were given no choice
Aliea and Ben are certainly not the first parents to refuse vaccines, and the hospital staff showed no indication of any problem with honoring their request, until Dr. Terry M. Bierd, MD, staff pediatrician at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, came in. It was the hepatitis B vaccine that was the problem. She told baby Aaron’s family that if they did not allow her to give the hepatitis B vaccine, she would call security and DHR (Alabama’s Child Protective Services). The baby would be given the vaccine anyway, at 12 hours old, and then be taken into state custody.
Because it was a Friday evening, Dr. Bierd told Aliea and Ben that they would have to figure out how to get their baby back after the weekend. However, it is not illegal to refuse vaccines in Alabama, as well as most other states.
Incidentally, the Hepatitis B vaccine is not even required by law in Alabama for admission to day care or school, and certainly not required by law for newborns.
Whether one is pro- or anti-vaccines, most Americans support the right of parents to make choices for their children. Some parents who are fully supportive of vaccines may choose to refuse a particular vaccine, and the Hepatitis B vaccine is one of the more commonly refused. Vaccine blackmail by a doctor, with the threat of state-sanctioned kidnapping, is a violation of basic American liberties, according to this Alabama couple.
After admission to the hospital toward the end of her short labor, Aliea Bidwell birthed her firstborn child naturally. Aaron was born on Friday morning, March 14, at 9:26 am, weighing 7 lbs, 11 oz. His Apgar scores were 9 and 9, at one and five minutes respectively – the picture of health. He was successfully breastfeeding within the first hour after birth. Grandparents Vesta and Ralph Bidwell were present with the happy new family and celebrated the arrival of their first grandchild.
Just a few hours later, their world imploded. Their “choice” was to submit to something that both generations were opposed to on religious and philosophical grounds, or have their newest member of the family be taken in a doctor-sanctioned kidnapping. They saw it as nothing less than vaccine blackmail.
Upon admission to the hospital, Bidwell told the staff that she did not want the newborn vaccines. No one present indicated any problem with her request. Legally, parents can refuse vaccines in Alabama on religious or medical grounds. But that didn’t stop Dr. Bierd from lying to the family, telling them that it was law that the baby receive the hepatitis B vaccine. She later back-pedaled and told them it wasn’t law, after the family had contacted an off-duty judge friend, who asked what statute that was. (It wasn’t.) But she didn’t back down on her blackmail threats.
Dr. Bierd claimed that “doctor’s discretion” gave her the right to override the parents’ decision and force the vaccine, or take the baby away and give it anyway. She based this on the fact that Aliea did not have existing bloodwork prior to admission demonstrating that she did not have hepatitis B. In other words, unlike the American system of justice, the assumption of this doctor is that mothers are “guilty until proven innocent by bloodwork.”
Hepatitis B is relatively uncommon, and it is transmitted either sexually or through re-use of needles. The groups at risk are sexually promiscuous adults, males who have had sex with males, and IV drug users.
The parents testify that they have never been engaged in any of the practices that would put them at risk, indicating a need for the vaccine. They told The Inquisitr that they are in a mutually monogamous relationship, their first, and have both been tested previously. Ralph, father of Aliea’s tight-knit family, assured the doctor that his daughter was not at risk.
Three times Dr. Bierd came in threatening the family. By the second time, Ben and Aliea were in their hospital room with an additional 12 family members, including great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and nephews. With a united front of 14 members of the extended family present, Dr. Terry Bierd came into the room and repeated her threats to allow the vaccine or they would take the baby. The entire family saw it as blackmail.
This is not a couple simply following a fad, or ignorantly endangering one of their own. The family has done much research that has caused them to come to their position. They listed a few of their reasons for refusing the vaccine to Dr. Bierd, and later reported their reasons they gave to The Inquisitr:
They are certainly not alone in their complaints about this particular vaccine. Elected leaders have held Congressional hearings on its safety in the nation’s capital:
Dr. Burton A. Waisbren, Sr., MD declares that “some babies who have little or no chance of getting hepatitis B will suffer unnecessary damage to their nervous system” because of the vaccine.
Aliea and Ben also cited religious reasons for opposing the vaccine. Freedom of religion is protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution as well as by the Alabama State Constitution.
But Dr. Bierd was unmoved by the family’s arguments or the mother’s tears. She gave them until 9 pm to “consent” to the vaccine or else she would carry out her threats.
Around 8 pm, the pediatrician moved up her timeline, telling the family that they needed to decide right then if it was going to be her way (consent to the vaccine) or the hard way. She would call security and they would take the baby away, and they would have to figure out how to get the baby back later. The baby was going to get the shot one way or another, that night.
It was blackmail. Aliea and Ben saw no choice. They consented to the vaccine so that their baby would not be taken away from them.
They were compelled to sign an “informed consent” form for the vaccine. The form stated that the doctor had explained the risks, and that the parents were making an informed decision. Ben said that they were the ones who explained the risks of the vaccine to the doctor. The form absolved the hospital of any and all risks and responsibilities, stating that the parents take all responsibility. Aliea and Ben told the nurse that they were signing under duress. There was no “consent” about it. The baby would get the vaccine no matter what they wanted; this was the only way their baby would not be kidnapped.
Apparently this is not the first time that Dr. Bierd has bullied parents at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. A staff person later told Aaron’s parents that Dr. Terry Bierd has forced vaccine compliance with many other people. The unidentified staff member stopped herself several times in the encounter with Ben and Aliea, but seemed pretty disturbed that the incident had happened. Allegedly there have been a number of other complaints against her.
The baby’s father Ben shared that he and Aliea had planned for months for their baby’s entrance into the world to be as peaceful and natural as possible. Instead, their baby’s first few days were filled with incredible stress. After a beautiful birth, Aliea found herself in the middle of a huge battle she never wanted to fight for the well-being of her baby. They felt that they were blackmailed into submission or else lose their baby.
Twelve hour old Aaron Gray was vaccinated against his parents will. They were forced to “consent,” but forced consent is not the same as the same as informed consent. Interestingly, the family was moved to the hospital’s top suite the next morning. But that is not enough, according to Ben Gray. They are not happy at what they see as a violation of their Constitutional rights. They want to get the word out about what is happening, because they are not alone.
There seems to be an increase in physicians and hospitals using bully tactics to override parents’ decisions for their children, with dire consequences that are the equivalent of kidnapping and blackmail.
There have been a number of such cases in recent years, which Natural News terms “state-sponsored medical terrorism.”
Cases include Justina Pelletier – the Boston teen who was taken from her parents for the crime of “disagreeing with the doctor’s diagnosis,” the Pennsylvania mother who refused the Hepatitis B vaccine and had her baby taken away, Jacob Stieler whose parents were threatened with prosecution for refusing toxic cancer treatment for their son, and the Nicolayevs – the California couple whose baby was taken by police because they wanted to get treatment from a different hospital for their baby.
What do you think of Dr. Bierd’s actions? Is it acceptable for a physician or hospital to violate parents’ choices for their children, or do parents in America still have the right to make decisions for their children, even if those choices don’t fit into the mainstream? Do doctors have the right to kidnap a healthy newborn from his parents when no crime has been committed? When they do, how can parents fight this medical or vaccine blackmail?
[images via Bing and the Gray family]