Vaccine abolitionism, vaccine abolitionist, and vaccine abolition are terms conceived by Catholic American writer and paralegal Katherine Watt, whose work is published on Bailiwick News Archives.
They build on decades of “anti-vax” advocacy fromfrom millions of individuals and numerous groups who, long before the COVID-19 event, understood and fought the lies about vaccination told by government agencies and officials, pharmaceutical companies, and others.
Though accurate, anti-vax, anti-vaxxer, and anti-vaccination are defensive, pejorative labels assigned by those who have sought to discredit scientists, doctors, parents, and others who have learned what vaccines are and are not.
By contrast, vaccine abolitionism, vaccine abolitionist, and vaccine abolition are proactive, affirmative terms that name a principled effort to protect and free society and posterity from certain institutions, industries, messages, products, and acts of deceit and aggression — above and beyond efforts to resist or repeal mandates.
Abolishing mandates and abolishing vaccines are not opposing goals, but they are not the same goal. The first protects people from force and coercion. The second challenges a) the legitimacy of vaccines as a public health project, b) the act of vaccination, and c) the existence of vaccines.
Future work shhould expand the concept into a robust framework by explicating:
- why “inherited” labels such as anti-vax, anti-vaxxer, anti-vaccination, vaccine skepticism, vaccine reluctance, though accurate, are inadequate and are contrasted with promoted behaviors such as vaccine confidence, vaccine readiness, and vaccine willingness;
- why a self-owned term is needed;
- what historical parallels help explain and tether the cause;
- where the position fits in U.S. law; and
- what vaccine abolitionists seek to abolish and what they propose instead.
My first use of vaccine abolitionist was in a comment on a Wall Street Journal article on 2 May 2026.
We discuss the terms in this recorded presentation: