A doctor at an Alabama hospital allegedly told parents that they would lose custody of their newborn son if they refused to vaccinate him – and subsequently pressured them so much that they relented.

Aliea Bidwell and Ben Gray are alleging that a staff pediatrician at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, even threatened to have security take their 12-hour-old son and turn him over to state authorities.

The doctor reportedly made the threat after Bidwell refused to let hospital staff give her newborn, Aaron, a hepatitis B vaccine, the Inquisitr website reported. The doctor may have had no legal authority to make the request because the vaccine is not required by Alabama state law and parents have the legal right to refuse it.

Off The Grid News made multiple requests to the hospital for a comment but received no reply.

It is not clear if Alabama Department of Human Resources would have gone along with the doctor’s request or not. Yet the doctor reportedly used the threat of lost custody in an attempt to force Bidwell to have Aaron vaccinated.

“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 news report stated. “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, [the doctor] told Aliea and Ben that they would have to figure out how to get their baby back after the weekend.”

Baby Was Perfectly Healthy

The parents claim the doctor threatened them and other relatives at least three times on the evening of March 14. Aaron had been born that morning at the hospital. They also allege that the physician waited until 8 p.m. on Friday evening to make the threat.

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Aaron was born seven pounds, 11 ounces, and was healthy, with Apgar scores of nine and nine.

“[The doctor] 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,” the story said. “She based this on the fact that Aliea did not have existing bloodwork prior to admission demonstrating that she did not have hepatitis B.”

The parents told the doctor they are in a mutually monogamous relationship and were in no danger to have hepatitis B.

At one point, the doctor allegedly made the threat in front of the couple and 12 family members.

“The hepatitis B vaccine is not safe or effective, and is linked to many autoimmune syndromes,” the couple later said in a statement. “There have been more than 1500 hepatitis B vaccine-related deaths reported, including deaths classified as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).”

The Threats Worked

The doctor then moved up the deadline, giving the couple until 9 p.m. on Friday evening to decide. They relented, fearing they would lose their baby. They even had to sign a consent form, saying the doctor had explained the risks of the vaccine. The form absolved the hospital of all risks of the vaccine.

The case was tragic, but it has happened in other states.

One woman, Jody Ferris, alleged that staff at the Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania had police and social workers take her newborn a few hours after birth because she refused a Hepatitis B vaccination for the infant, Off The Grid News previously reported. Ferris and her husband had to hire an attorney and get a court order to get the baby back.

The Home School Legal Defense Association filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Hershey Medical Center on Ferris’s behalf.

Should parents have the legal right to refuse vaccines for their children? Tell us in the comments below.

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