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2nd Oakland County Mom Faces Judge In Anti-Vaccination Case

PONTIAC (WWJ) - Demonstrators for the right to choose vaccinations were back outside Oakland County Circuit Court on Monday, where a second anti-vax case is being considered by a judge.

Lori Matheson wants to skip vaccinating her 2-year-old daughter and is now in a legal battle with the child's father.

Gretchen Perry-Emery of the group "Michigan for Vaccine Choice" showed up to support what she says are the rights of a parent. Signs read: "Where there is risk there must be choice" and "Vaccine injury is real."

"We think that if there are beliefs or there are concerns about health and they're valid and they've been proven by science and they are documented then I believe that that's where the choice should fall," Perry-Emery said.

"I believe that the immune system was developed to be able to mature properly in its own way, by our creator, and it's not mature in an infant until about 18 months of age," she added.

Earlier a court referee sided with the child's dad who wants to vaccinate his daughter. Judge Karen McDonald could hand down her decision as early as today.

McDonald is the same judge who last week sent Ferndale mom Rebecca Bredow to jail for seven days for failing to comply with a court order to have her child immunized.

While celebrity-led campaigns have argued that vaccines can cause Autism, doctors with the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians and the Michigan Osteopathic Association maintain vaccines are "very safe," and protect kids against deadly diseases.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, Michigan ranks fourth in the nation for parents who opt out of vaccine with non-medical exemptions.

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