Until last week, Amanda S. and her husband had no idea they would be packing up their belongings, taking their three kids out of school, and fleeing the state. They loved their life in Santa Barbara, but they believe the State of California has taken away their right to protect their children.
Amanda is an anti-vaxxer, or as she prefers, “ex-vaxxer.” She said she was “very much for vaccines” until she experienced severe side effects from the Gardasil human papillomavirus vaccine in 2007. She said her body went into organ failure, nearly killing her. She began menopause at 21 years old and said she only regained fertility after 10 years of reproductive therapies before she was able to give birth to their two biological children. (Her third child is her stepchild.)
To this day she deals with an autoimmune disease that she attributes to the vaccines; she isn’t willing to gamble the same won’t happen to her kids. Her two biological children had been granted family-history medical exemptions so they could attend school, but new California legislation makes it doubtful that will continue.