FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Rebecca Estepp Claudine Liss

858-829-6454 310-970-2485

MilMom2000@... dineliss@...

McCain Supports Parental Vaccination Choice and Prioritizes Vaccine
Safety

Obama Silent Despite Repeated Overtures From Parents

Poway, CA, October 23, 2008 - Rebecca Estepp is a military spouse and
the mother of two boys, including a vaccine-injured child with
autism. Her husband, a Marine, has served three war-time deployments
in the past five years. "You would think the war would be the most
important issue to me, but it‟s not. The war will be over at some
point but the effects of vaccine damage will last for generations."
Estepp cites the neurotoxins injected into American babies and
expresses deep concern about the injury and damage they may be
causing, saying "It weighs heavily on my heart."

For these reasons, Estepp made and sent a two-minute video
entitled "Vaccine Safety Requests For Our Next Commander-in-Chief" to
the two Presidential candidates in May 2008. She made a plea for our
next President to issue two Executive Orders within the first one
hundred days of entering office; the first, removal all mercury from
all vaccines by January 1, 2010, the second, a moratorium on the
addition of new vaccines to the recommended list for children until
the current vaccine schedule can be proven safe. Says
Estepp, "Children deserve to be protected from diseases that can harm
or kill them but we need to be sure that in our efforts to prevent
disease, we haven‟t created lifelong chronic illness and
disabilities."

On October 20th, Estepp received a detailed response from Douglas
Holtz-Eakin, a senior policy advisor to the McCain campaign. Vaccine
safety is officially on the McCain agenda. If elected, McCain said
he "will work with all agencies to take all necessary steps in an
expedient manner to ensure safe vaccines for every American family."
And, significantly, McCain also endorsed parental vaccination choice.
In response to the new vaccine moratorium request, McCain
offered: "The key to health care reform is to restore control to the
patients themselves." The full text is provided in the October 23rd
post on Age of Autism (AoA) www.ageofautism.com

In contrast, Team Obama has declined to officially clarify its
position. Estepp is disappointed: "When asked about vaccine safety,
he wrote a general autism position statement and didn‟t even
mention the word vaccine." A copy of his letter to Rebecca Estepp is
provided in the same AoA post. The words "vaccine safety" are not
found in any Obama campaign materials or speeches.

Taking matters into her own hands, New Jersey parent Claudine Liss
attended an Obama fundraiser with the express intention of getting an
answer. Liss explains, "I shook his hand and would not let go until
he answered my question. He looked right at me and said, „I am not
for selective vaccination. I believe it will bring back deadly
diseases, like polio.‟" Liss and many others are declining to
vaccinate their children using the CDC-recommended schedule. New
Jersey parents are furious about the first-ever mandated flu shot
required for day care and preschool. Seven hundred people rallied in
Trenton last week in support of vaccination choice. The freedom of
choice issue resonates deeply and has made national news, with
coverage on Fox News TV, ABC World News Tonight and an Associated
Press article that was picked up by dozens of papers across the
country.

Estepp extends a final plea to Senator Obama to clarify his
position: "This is a party-neutral issue and many of our parents are
waiting to make up their minds. Senator McCain says parents have the
final say in how they vaccinate their children. Senator Obama appears
to disagree. I sincerely hope that Senator Obama misspoke that night
in New Jersey and he lets us know before November 4th."

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