Anti-Vaxxer Mom Is Jailed After Rejecting Order to Immunize Her Son

The Detroit-area mom's ex-husband thought the boy should be vaccinated. She disagreed.

A Michigan mother locked in a battle with her ex-husband over whether to vaccinate their child has gone to jail.

Rebecca Bredow, of Ferndale, was given a week in the slammer for refusing an order to immunize her 9-year-old son that was handed down after a year-long battle with former husband James Horne over the decision.

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"I couldn’t bring myself to do it," Bredow told the court. 

Bredow had previously agreed to vaccinate the boy but failed to do so, according to a report, in a situation that played a part in the Oakland County judge's decision to jail her for a week.

"It's clear to me that you don't care about orders even if you agree to them, which you did," the judge said. "Your attorney signed that order."

The mother of two cited her religious beliefs as what held her back from getting the boy vaccinated, an argument her ex's attorney called "a convenient lie."

Still, Bredow said she'd rather go to jail than violate her beliefs.

"I would rather sit behind bars standing up for what I believe in, than giving in to something I strongly don't believe in," she said.

Bredow's husband will have temporary custody of the boy, which will give him an opportunity to have the child vaccinated.

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The anti-vaccination movement was born, in part, out of a 1998 study linking vaccines to autism in children. 

While that link has been widely discredited since, recent data suggests anti-vaccination efforts are affecting children in a negative way in the form of measles and other illnesses contracted by the unvaccinated. 

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