An anti-vaccine activist in Minnesota acknowledges that measles can be a deadly disease, but insists that won’t stop her from urging parents to avoid vaccinating their children.

A measles outbreak that began in Disneyland in California has infected more than 100 people in the United States. The outbreak of the highly contagious disease, which was nearly eliminated in the United States thanks to vaccines, has ignited debate over the so-called anti-vaxxer movement.

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“Yes, on occasion someone gets measles and dies. But you can’t base your life on a few people,” Christine Abel of Vaccine Awareness recently told local news outlet Fox 9.

“You have to ask what’s wrong with them. Why did they die when most people don’t die?”

Minnesota is one of 22 states that allows parents to object to childhood vaccinations for non-medical reasons. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, parents can obtain an exemption by submitting a signed notarized statement to their child’s school or child care facility attesting to the fact that vaccinations are contrary to their conscientiously held beliefs.

Abel told Fox 9 last month that she had raised nine children without immunization.

“These vaccine-presentable diseases, for most people, are not a problem. You get, sick you get well. Just like labor, you have pain, you get over it,” she said.

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State Rep. Eric Freiberg (DFL-Golden Valley) has proposed legislation that would require parents to talk with doctors before exempting their children from vaccines.

There’s “a lot of misinformation” about the dangers of vaccines, Freiberg told the Grand Forks Herald. “Hopefully a visit with a doctor or a nurse could help dispel some of that misinformation.”

Watch video, courtesy of Fox 9, below:

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