Could NJ courts keep unvaccinated parents away from their kids? (Opinion)

Just like here in America, Canadians are angry. They want to get rid of vaccine mandates, especially those that target children.

I think we’ve reached a tipping point here in America. Even people who don’t love the idea of the coronavirus vaccine were willing to get it so as not to lose their jobs or become barred from travel or entertainment. But then when it became mandated for kids in order to be able to participate in certain aspects of normal kid life, the story changed.

Just like a lot of things that you will take risks with as an adult, you’ll think twice when it comes to kids. But an interesting ruling in Canada really strikes fear in the hearts of many parents here.

A divorced mom took her ex to court to keep him from seeing his immunocompromised child because he was unvaccinated. And the court agreed with her. They instituted an order that allows the father to interact with the children only over Zoom and agreed to reevaluate the sentencing if he changes his mind and gets vaccinated.

When you think about it, it’s like any other custody battle. People fight over all kinds of things when it comes to raising their children but here is the scariest part: In this ruling, the mother can overrule the father's decision not to get vaccinated.

In a report last month by the World Health Organization, experts recommended that kids should be vaccinated even though they can have less severe symptoms of COVID-19. But some parents are vehemently against it.

We’ve seen this happen in our country also. In Chicago this past summer, a judge sided with the vaccinated parent and refused to allow a mother to see her 11-year-old child because the mom wasn’t vaccinated.

Mandates for adults are one thing and mandates for kids are another. But when courts step in to make family decisions like this it’s a frightening prospect. And it’s happening here in the US. Perhaps in New Jersey, too.

In the Chicago case, the mother was very wary about getting the vaccine because she said she had had adverse reactions to vaccines in the past and was advised not to get vaccinated by a doctor. The judge said too bad.

Even though a lot of the frenzy about COVID is starting to wane, this is a very real and scary aspect of the pandemic. We’ve heard many stories about grandparents who were being refused visitation with their own grandkids, but when it comes to parents, this is startlingly new territory. And if you think that can’t happen here in this country, especially here in New Jersey, you better think again.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Judi Franco only.

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