Episode 207 — Draw YOUR OWN Conclusions
Guest: Leah Wilson • Date: June 6, 2024
Episode Overview
Joining us this week is Leah Wilson, founder of Stand For Health Freedom, which promotes parental rights and informed consent. Leah shares insights on navigating the growing scope of genetic testing and the importance of being educated to make empowered choices. This discussion makes a case for knowledge over fear in protecting our children’s health.
About Leah Wilson
Leah Wilson, an attorney with a background in complex litigation and advocacy, has been dedicated to children's health and welfare for over a decade. Her journey began with the troubling overmedication of foster children, leading her to become a foster parent and court-appointed advocate. Leah's experiences revealed the pervasive use of psychiatric drugs in foster care and the state's strict vaccination mandates for foster families.
Recognizing the broader impact of one-size-fits-all medical mandates on child welfare, Leah founded Stand for Health Freedom (SHF) in 2019 to advocate for all children nationwide. She holds a law degree from Saint Louis University and a dual bachelor's degree in political science and Spanish from Indiana University.
Leah also owns MaxLiving Indy, a prominent natural health center, and is a well-known educator and speaker on holistic health, religious rights, and environmental issues.
https://standforhealthfreedom.com/
You’ll Discover
The Origin Story of Stand For Health Freedom (2:24)
Some Incredibly Important Questions To Ask (13:22)
The Power of The TIMELINE (16:03)
Concerns With Newborn Screening (23:05)
How You Can Be Part of the Solution (33:01)
Referenced in This Episode
Full Transcript
Leah Wilson | 00:00
We said this is too big to fight and too big to walk away from, that unjust policies that are hurting children and not helping anyone are winning the day, that people think that this makes sense, but it's simply because there's a huge education gap in what does and does not make sense with medical mandates. ♪.
Cass Arcuri | 00:19
Want to truly be the best parent you can be and help your child thrive after their autism diagnosis? This podcast is for all in parents like you who know more is possible for your child.
Len Arcuri | 00:30
- With each episode, we reveal a secret that empowers you to be the parent your child needs now, saving you time, energy, and money, and helping you focus on what truly matters most, your child.
Cass Arcuri | 00:41
- I'm Cass. - And I'm Len. - Welcome to Autism Parenting Secrets.
Len Arcuri | 00:57
Hello and welcome to Autism Parenting Secrets. It's Len, and my guest this week is Leah Wilson. Leah is an attorney with a background in complex litigation and advocacy, and currently she's the executive director and co-founder of Stand for Health Freedoms. She is beyond passionate. About children's health and has researched and worked on child welfare issues for more than a decade. She closed her law practice in 2019 to start Stand for Health Freedom to promote parental rights and informed consent. The secret this week is draw your own conclusions. Welcome, Leah.
Leah Wilson | 01:37
Thank you so much, Lynn. It's a pleasure to be here and talk about one of my most favorite topics on the planet, and that's parenting, essentially.
You know, it's healthcare, it's kids, it's training our children and caring for them. So thank you so much for having me.
Len Arcuri | 01:51
Well, thank you again. And I know we're going to cover a lot of great ground. There's so much in this space that I'm so excited and honored that I understand now after a dozen years. But early on, when I was a new parent. A lot of the concepts we're going to talk about were not obvious to me.
So I'm just excited for people listening to better understand the opportunities to basically step into that role to confidently make good decisions for their child. And I know it sounds obvious, but there's an entire system that's designed to take that away from you.
So I'll hand it off to you to share your backstory.
Leah Wilson | 02:29
Yes, we can start from the beginning since I haven't had the chance to speak with your audience before just so they can understand why I spend my time and resources this way, you know, running a nonprofit, which is now international. We're in Canada. We're directly in 38 states. We help empower advocacy in all 50 states, but we have state organizations that we partner with in 38 of those states just in a short time since 2019.
So why did I, along with our co-founders, start Stand for Health Freedom? It was in 2018, my husband and I decided that we would open our home to take foster care placements again. We had already been foster parents in the state of Indiana, taking a break because we had a surprise rainbow baby, Samuel. He was a year old and we both thought it's time to take in more children. We opened our home back up and right before our next placement, we were told, wait, Wilsons, we need your vaccine records for your biological child.
Sons Isaiah and Samuel. And we said, you have the exemptions on file. That's what we've used in the past. You have those already. And they said that won't work. We are now reading a state regulation to say that The welfare of a foster child is in jeopardy if there are unvaccinated children in the household.
So we said, okay, what changed? Like, why did you start interpreting a regulation differently since we had our last placement?
You know, why are we now a threat when we were not before when children slept in our house before? And there was real, no real explanation, but there was, a very clear trend that was sweeping the U.S. With taking away rights to, I don't know if it's necessarily a right to foster, but taking away at least a privilege to help the most vulnerable children in our state. And it didn't make sense other than that Health and Human Services wanted vaccination status to increase. And this is one way to do it is by saying, comply or you cannot have children or you can't do this.
So we said, all right, We're not the ones that are hurt by this policy. It's the kids, you know, it's the kids who are sleeping on the floor at Department of Child Services in Indiana instead of in a safe and loving home.
Like we need homes in our state. There are many states who are short on foster homes to place children. And so what we heard loud and clear was, yes, Department of Child Services in our state would rather those kids sleep on the floor in an office building than in a family's home, a safe and loving home where we have healthy children.
So we said this is too big to fight. And too big to walk away from that unjust policies that are hurting children and not helping anyone are winning the day that people think that this makes sense. But it's simply because there's a huge education gap in what does and does not make sense with medical mandates.
So there we had it. We dove in, if you remember back to 2018. What was happening with medical mandates. There was a measles outbreak reported across the U.S., you know, mostly in the upper, the northwest and on the east coast. There was a big... Alarm bells going off with measles and which meant we saw religious exemptions come under attack across the United States. And so one of our very first things was, whoa, these parents care about. And they have a lot of information that they want to communicate to someone who can do something about it, but they don't know which information is most effective to which public official at which point in time. And we noticed that these people wanted a voice and that we could help them have a meaningful, effective voice through Stanford Health Freedom, that we could bridge that gap for advocacy, that it would be possible for us to stand together stronger. For us as people, us as parents to show our strength in numbers, because we are not the industry.
You know, there are many stakeholders when it comes to medical decision making. And the parent is a huge one when it comes to the health of our children. But yet, how are the parents represented as stakeholders within the halls of government? And that gap was huge because the people needed help using their voice in an effective manner.
Someone who understands who's in charge of what in the halls of government, who can affect what, how do we move the ball down the field in a meaningful way, in a systematic way? How do we take away obstacles to our community? Natural, God-given, constitutionally guaranteed rights. And so our team now, it was just me and my husband and my mentor and our co-founders. And now we have a team of seven women who work on this day in and day out, dedicated warriors who work We ultimately want to see our constitutional republic saved so that parents can be the ones in the driver's seat. Because when we were left a constitutional republic that Dr. Franklin said, if you can keep it, right, he didn't say here, this is your gift, you'll have it forever. He said a constitutional republic if you can keep it.
So we as parents have to be an educated parent. Population in order to leave the same thing for our children.
So that's why we're here. We're just here to help you use your voice on issues that are important to you as a parent. I think it goes without saying that People understand our kids are sick. And many moms can say that individually. Many moms can say, my kid is sick. And that's too often that we're able to say that. And it's not okay that we are not given options on how to get different results in the U.S. We have way too much money, way too much knowledge. We can do anything with AI, but God forbid we be able to figure out the cause of why our kids are sick, you know, that we should just take. The wholesale answer that they're either genetically broken or have bad luck. Or, you know, that is it really bad luck and bad genes that we have? 10 times more kids sick today than we did a couple of generations ago in the millennials. If you look at Blue Cross Blue Shield coding that the millennials are way sicker than the generation before them, you know, so what can we do as parents to look for answers, to look at a timeline for our kids and do something differently and then protect our ability to Continue to do that, to make those decisions, to inform ourselves and make decisions without mandates being in the way, without the threat of medical kidnapping being in the way. That's a really ugly, gross word to try to confront. And you want to, you know, most of us want to pretend like it doesn't even exist, that medical kidnapping doesn't exist. But. The more genetic diagnoses, the more diagnoses that happen within hospital walls and the parents are given a one ill, one pill approach. And if you don't take it, then you come under scrutiny. From the state. Because of the expert opinion.
That's why we're here. We're here because we firmly believe that the parent is best situated to know their child, to do a risk-benefit analysis for their child, to want their child to succeed in the long term, and have that entire picture and be there. For the long term, to see them grow up to be a thriving, vital human that can contribute to society.
Len Arcuri | 10:09
What every parent wants, right? They want to be able to make good decisions, to not only want to be a good parent, but to actually feel like they're making good decisions and then really backing that up with action. And I love so much of what you talked about. And there is this gap and it is an education gap in terms of a parent really understanding with eyes more wide open what might be happening with their sick child, what their options might be. And I think, you know, there's a lot of passion and, you know, judgment within this space and a lot of, you know, a lot of passionate people across the board. And it really does help. Simply come down to not that any parent needs to do something or not do something. It's just about, as you talked about, It's about. Choice it's about somebody who is in the best position to know what's right for their child, which is the parent, more than likely the mom, but to be able to respect the fact that parent, even if they don't have a certain degree, or a certain status. That they know what's right for their child and that they have the ability to choose.
So again, it's not about pro or con anything, it's just about Parents get to make the call. And it sounds like such an obvious thing, but as I alluded to earlier, There's so much at play right now, more than ever. That's designed to shame and to put pressure and to disrespect the parents' own sense of what's right for their child.
So I'm so excited about the work that you and your organization are doing because the first step is awareness. And I know I was fully asleep early on when we've had our, when my wife became, my wife Cass became pregnant with our son. We knew about this issue. And knew we needed to dive into it. And I raised my hand and said, yeah, I'll look into the whole vaccine thing. And I spent literally five minutes thinking, entering a search, got to the CDC site that said all's well and didn't think anything of it. And so basically checked the box saying, yeah, there's really nothing to this. And I just so wish early on, I would have had more of a desire to get better informed, to be more critical about the thinking that I was applying to my son who wasn't even born yet, to creating, to making good decisions for him even before he was born.
So I think that's There is an awareness gap. And the fact that your organization's there to help parents get better informed isn't a small thing.
So I thank you for what you're doing.
Leah Wilson | 12:46
Thank you. Yes. And. It is.
I mean, so many people... Trust the experts because that's, what our culture does is what we do as a society. And. To take back that framework of informed consent, recognizing that we all just lived through COVID.
So we have a perfect illustration to know that a single solution is often put forward as the only solution. And I remember sitting with Someone... High up policy advisor in a state house and saying, How do you feel about the notion of one size fits all medicine. And he said, Leah. No one thinks that's a thing. No one likes one-size-fits-all medicine. And I said, well, then we need to talk about... How we allow people to get access to information.
Like, you know, you have a lot of legislation coming down the pike that is reinforcing that there's only one solution. And people don't understand that if it's a single solution and fear is the alternative, you know, that we need to look deeper because God didn't put us here on earth to be incapable of understanding our own existence.
You know, that you often find yourself confused, like my goodness, we're in a health crisis and I don't understand what the doctor is saying. So I have to trust them because they know better than me. And it's like, wait, if we step back and we get an advocate when we're overwhelmed and we ask like, how often do you see this? And. What happens if you do nothing? What have you seen if you do nothing? What happens if you do something? What are the success rates you've seen? What are the side effects that you've seen? What happens if my child does get the measles? What, you know, what does that look like? Are there benefits to getting the measles? What are the risks of getting the measles for my child? Not globally, not for a child in Africa who doesn't have clean water. What are the risks of measles? What are the risks of measles for my child who has a nutrient-dense diet in suburbia?
You know, in America. So it's just that taking back that framework to say we want something different for the health of American children. That we want something different.
So we're going to have to take a look at, what my options are as a mom, because I saw the playbook during COVID, you know, speaking for other people. I think that our advocacy base, people taking action through StanfordHealthFreedom.com has grown by exponentially. But I think that 60% of our advocates came to us because of what they saw with fear mongering during COVID. And people yelling fire in the streets can raise a lot of antennas for mothers who know that they have fear. Little people to take care of.
So.
Len Arcuri | 15:35
You know, I can imagine that would only help promote the awareness for people to question more maybe than they had in the past. But I think if you think about the average person listening, the average mom, a new mom, soon to be mom, what do you think is the bigger issue? Factor that's preventing people from embracing this idea that, but this is my choice, I get to choose. Is it that... Their desire to not make a mistake is that greater than their desire to make a good decision. And I'm saying that intentionally because I feel like as I looked at it from my own perspective, yes, I wanted to, I trusted myself. I know my wife has huge intuition. We can trust ourselves to make good decisions. And there was that desire to want to make, to be the decision maker. But I think there was an even bigger desire feeling that at least I had that as much as I wanted that, I just didn't want the responsibility Of making a bad decision of doing something that's outside the norm that I could be judged for.
So I think parents are more worried about making a mistake and being wrong than they are about. Their own sense that they can make a good decision for their child. They can trust themselves.
Like what's your take on that?
Leah Wilson | 16:59
I think you're absolutely right. Because when even when you talk to parents who would I if I'm sitting knee to knee with a mom. I'll often will go to the concept of let's make a timeline of your child.
You know, you're frustrated because your child can no longer pay attention in school. They're in third grade and all of a sudden they can't sit in a classroom. Okay, let's make the timeline. What changed about their diet, what changed about medications, did they get any recent vaccinations, what changed about family dynamics. You make the timeline, you look at this. And even moms who have seen a, let's say they saw a, triggering event and then they saw a change for the worse in their child's health. They still hold a fear that If I do nothing, it'll be my fault when something goes wrong.
You know, it's that whole, I can't do nothing because I would never live with myself if I there was an event that I didn't cover my bases on, you know, and I think you're right. I think that's exactly right. And that's why, the education gap is real.
You know, it sounds almost cliche to say that Knowledge is power. And the education changes everything. And how do we acquire knowledge? Oftentimes it's through experience. And, or it can be because you learned it, you learned it in a classroom or, you know, there's different ways that you can acquire knowledge. But until we have that. It's really hard to make a clear decision. We've been told that mandates have to be complied with. We'll just say the medical mandates for school are the childhood vaccine schedule. Then if you don't, then your child can't get an education. And some parents still think that that's true.
You know, there are still a huge part of population who does not know that you do have rights to decline. You do have rights to opt out. Do I wish that there were zero mandates to begin with? Absolutely.
You know, that's not the reality that we live within right now. So it's important that people know what their options are. And I was testifying in a hearing at a state house at one point, and they were questioning a doctor who was talking about choice and the importance of choice. And the state lawmaker said, Well, with all due respect, doctor, if you want your child to be educated, you need to comply. And he said, no, you are able to send your child to school without the vaccinations if you have an exemption. And even this lawmaker said, no, I don't think that's true. And it's like, wait, like you guys are the ones that are in charge of overseeing the policies that might need to change or be implemented. And even someone within that population did not know that a parent has options, that there are ways to step back and make decisions outside of the threat of force or threat of loss of an education. And so I think that right there just takes pressure off of a parent to know that, there are people making different decisions. Why are they doing that? And Whenever, you know, we're talking, we're very open with our kids about health choice and how do we make our health decisions and how do we view our body and our body's always doing something smart and approaching things like that because... There are so many other influences that want to influence our kids on health today.
So if we don't speak first, then they will develop. A framework. Whatever they encounter out in the public. And so when I'll ask my boys, you know, what do people need to know about vaccines? And they'll automatically point to, well, what's going in your body? What's in the ingredients, you know? And I think that If we can take away the fear of childhood. Disease and understand that There is a risk to disease. There is a risk to intervention. There's a benefit disease. There's a benefit to intervention. And Every parent. Their circumstances.
Len Arcuri | 21:09
They do have the ability, but not with what's being spoon fed to them or what's readily available. You have to do a little something. You have to do actual digging, which is what I didn't do early on. And so that's where social media and everything that's like and all the opportunities now for information have never been better. There's a lot of nonsense
So, again, parents have the ability to get better informed. A lot of it comes down to who is informed. Who is the source of the information, which is where I know I wanted nothing more than to be able to fully trust whatever the government was saying to me, feeling like they had my best interest. And it took a while for me to get to a point where even though I wanted that to be true, the reality is you can't rely on that and that there's a lot of conflicts of interest. There's a lot of other agendas that are going on and nobody has the agenda that you do as a parent which is you're the one who's focused on your kid. I don't think any, no one else really gives a crap. It's you are the person who gets to make these choices. And if you're just relying on what information is readily available, you're going to miss the boat. It doesn't mean that you have to go believe in crazy conspiracy theories and the like, it just means know what the source is, get a variety of sources. And again, then with better information, you, Make the call that's right for you, whatever it happens to be. And parents just don't get that guidance early on. It's just all about do what's expected with a lot of subtle and overt pressures. And that's just not going to serve your child.
So you have to do something to get better informed is what I'm trying to say.
Leah Wilson | 22:48
Yes. And going back to that, whatever basic principles that your family espouses.
You know, some people view the body differently than others. And so you have to know your own philosophy completely. Before even selecting your experts, before selecting your sources. And I have felt never felt so strongly. We had a surprise baby in 2023 and. I walked this journey in a completely different perspective, light lens than I had with my boys in the sense that, There's a huge juxtaposition between man's prognosis and God's plan. And I think when we sit down as, parents and look at You know, what do we believe for this child and for this child's life? And when there's something that is speaking counter to that. Where do we go from there?
You know, and I think that, I'm just going to go ahead and tell you one of the issues that I've really been burning on lately and that we are watching carefully at Stanford Health Freedom is newborn screening. Which is quickly becoming newborn sequencing. And whole DNA reading of a newborn at birth. And talking about knowing what you want for your child What this looks like is a parent has a child and within... The first 24 to 48 hours of that child's life, depending on the state that you live in, They get a heel prick.
You know, what started out as the PKU is screening for five different genetic variants. Now, depending on your state is between 30 and 40 different things that they're screening for. And right now they're testing in different teaching hospitals that becoming a full DNA sequencing. And that test will happen on your child unless. You opt out because you're, It's an opt-out thing. It's mandated across the United States by state law.
And then if you say...
Then to be able with AI and genetic sequencing to look at 7,000 different markers in a child, I might have that number might even be bigger, but. Thousands, not just five now that we started out with over 50 years ago, but now thousands of markers. It's like looking at a healthy person, if you go doing body wide MRIs and scans, you're going to find something. Even on a healthy person that might not have ever turned into anything of any concern. And so what does that look like for a mom to be told your healthy infant was sequenced and now has this genetic issue that will lead to destruction in their life? And so we need to start treatment tomorrow. On your healthy infant. And okay, Leo, why does that matter?
Well, we got to look back at like, what is. What did genetics mean?
You know what I mean? Like. You and I could have... A variant that exposes poses itself very differently.
You know, the penetrance of a variation in your DNA is different across people. There's only two genetic conditions that have a hundred percent penetrance. Yet, if you're looked at and told like your child has this genetic condition and Oftentimes, it's communicated in a way that it's 100% penetrance when only two known issues have 100% penetrance, which means that the DNA will express itself in a predictable manner, which is So all I'm saying is, That are healthy children, how they are viewed by a doctor and by a test result could be different than what you even believe for your child's future. And that's, If we're only given one option, to comply or bust. Did we need that information to begin with?
You know? And so it's just a lot to think about.
So we're going to be watching this issue and bringing educational materials to the public about newborn screening, about genetic testing, about parents options so that even from day one of life that we can, be in the driver's seat of our children's health so that we can help our children, Have it. The best possible outcomes as they learn and grow and become you know, useful members of your family and then of our country and hopefully of our very intact constitutional republic as they become voters in 20 years down the road.
So that's just a short glimpse or preview of one of the battles ahead that we see is newborn screening and the scope of that and what it means for parents options.
Len Arcuri | 28:10
No, it's absolutely frightening. So I'm listening to this and I haven't really heard this specific thing that's coming down the road. We've done a number of episodes on functional genomics, the importance of, you know, better understanding your genes that can help you make better decisions for your child. But in no way is it determinative, right, in terms of whatever. And I'm guessing they're doing full genomic sequencing, all 20,000 genes, right? And, you know, it's useful to have that information in terms of, hey, what do you set up more to be potentially harmed by? Or what is it that you might be able to do now that might help the body just perform at its best? But it's not determinative because it's always about epigenetics, the interplay between your genes and the environment, which is why, you know, having a curating a more healthful environment for your child and your entire family makes so much sense, although it takes effort. But the fact that this is now something that's going to be you know, people are going to be pressured to do, you know, I thought you were going to say it's like the Hep B shot first day of life where they'll make you sign a form if you don't want it. But if in this case, it's more than just signing a form, if you actually have to claim an exemption, you know, as early as that first day, then that's interesting to know. And again, even here, no matter what pressure you feel, you get to choose. And what's the cost benefit of having that information? And I personally don't see any upside to finding out on day one all the potential things that are wrong with your child. It's just not as simple as that. Although people would like to have it be as simple. Your child scores an X and you know, and, and therefore, yeah, do these interventions right away. It may seem well-intentioned, but, you know, it may actually put the parent's nervous system in such a heightened state that that's in no way going to be beneficial for their child.
So, so thanks for sharing that. And, Yeah, no, I would not want to walk into that as a new parent and have to make that decision day one. Eyes wide open. Good to know that that's coming. Or is it already here?
Leah Wilson | 30:14
It's being done in some hospitals and the latest, Seminar, the name is leaving me, but through NIH and they said it's no longer about the ethics of sequencing the newborn babies. It's about how to scale this testing now.
Like now our only question is. How do we get this for every baby, not the ethics of doing it? And there are ethical questions. And to skip over those is a big problem, you know, because the ethical questions come into play with what's being communicated to a parent about the penetrance about the guarantee that this will be an issue for them yet. One of the genetic abnormalities, well, single cell, they just came up with two gene altering therapies.
So those were just approved through the Orphan Drug Act. And now they're... There's already one I think it's Zolgamma is a $2.1 million injection. For one of these abnormalities that could be found. And it's like, okay, so this is the only solution is that we get a $2.1 million injection and Medicaid covers it, But. What does that look like? And there was one study done. To authorize that injection. And that one study was seven mice and six of them had a bad outcome, but we relied on the one good outcome for that one mouse to bring this to market for these fragile children.
You know, and so it's, there's just a lot to be aware of. And I think that if we understand as parents, what we want to create for our kids and what we believe as true for our children, that they were knit together and that if there's, you know, like you said, epigenetics. And epigenetics does speak to the fact of that. Let's say there is a sequence of variation in your DNA. Is there a backup system in your body, you know, in this beautiful design that you were created with? Is there are there, you know, 10 different backup systems to speak to that? Or is it one misspelling and you're doomed?
So what do we believe about this? Because the science, honestly, the science is really shaky when you start digging into it.
Like who says what and why? You mean the one genetic sequencing manufacturer who has 90% market share and the name of this organization is Illumina?
Like that's who gets to say like, so it's just, it's fascinating to me. It's a new battle ahead for us and something that we want moms to know about so that they can go in with eyes wide open to say yes or no, that we want this testing for our children or, And. It's just one more thing to be aware of, because if we as a population can spot the issues. We can say like, with this decision, this is what we're creating. Then we can be intentional. If we know the issues and we know how to see them pop up, then with intention, you and I can together co-create a community and a future for our children that we're proud of and that we want to be a part of.
Len Arcuri | 33:20
Fantastic. No, and I think there's a lot of other areas I know we can dive into. But before I forget, if anybody does want to be part of this, or who cares about health, freedom, whatever choices they make, how can they do more than I did early on, right? In terms of not only making good decisions for your child, but how can they to be more part of this movement because this movement is gaining It's gaining steam. It's important because it needs to combat a lot of the other influences, let's just say for-profit influences that are out there.
So how can the parent who's listening now do more?
Leah Wilson | 33:58
Yes, you can go to StandForHealthFreedom.com and join the movement. We are working toward a small, powerful part of the population, which would be 11.5 million for the U.S. That's 3.5%, where research shows that if you get to 3.5% of a peaceful protest for change, that we will not fail to see a political and cultural shift. And So getting to that three and a half percent of the peaceful protest with Stand for Health Freedom is using your voice on these issues, is knowing that you're not alone in this, is taking that. Portable message when we put out calls to action, taking those portable messages, that little bits of information that you learn and talking about them in the public square with your kids' teachers, with your PTA moms or your school board or your church friends, you know, that we can carry this message and share the messages with others so that we're together aware of these issues and co-creating, like we said, those communities together.
So if you want to join, go to samplehealthfreedom.com. You can go to recent actions and take action. If there's actions in your state, you can click on your state to see what's going on. If there's a need to use your voice within your state at that point in time or federally, we're watching the WHO issues. We're watching the food integrity issues. We partnered with Weston A. Price to really help shape policy and Congress to help protect our livestock and protect our soil properly.
So that we have meaningful choice as it relates to our food supply in the U.S.
So yeah, we invite you to join us and we endeavor to bring you a message that has integrity, that is based on constitutional integrity, based on data. We don't fight on science. Science is not our best tool because science of the day can change. And we really point back to what are our constitutional rights? What is the data showing us? What is the risk benefit analysis? And How do we move forward together to do something about it? Am I promising you that using your voice is definitely going to stop a bill or pass a bill? No, but. It does work. We have, we've had, we had over, 23 legislative wins in 2023 alone. And we've seen dozens more since our inception. But ultimately, it's that we live. Freer together, that we are freer when we have knowledge, that we're making decisions based on our rights and our knowledge, not based on fear. And that's where the true beauty is. Because when three and a half percent of us start living that way, we're going to see a breakthrough. We're going to see an explosion of people looking in and saying, this is inviting. This is where we need to be. This is what we want for our children.
So Come and join us and get involved and vote for Health Freedom 2024 because that's another way with electoral accountability to say who we want to be in office, who is willing to be available to us as stakeholders, to us parents as stakeholders, and to make a commitment to protect and expand our natural rights as parents.
Len Arcuri | 37:15
Yeah, voting is key and it's going to vary, you know, depending on where you live, state to state area, you know, local authorities and elections are extremely important as well, in addition to national. But I know I really appreciate what you're sharing. And yeah, three and a half percent is a pretty realistic to start to really influence and change. And even though that's not the highest percent, I know, again, the way I was looking at it was, hey, I'm going to focus on my own family and not really advocate and not be out there. And I appreciated that there were other people doing that.
So I guess I'm just teeing up the idea that it's easy to kind of in your internally support something like this, but then kind of keep to yourself. And of all times, now is the time to be more actively involved, to do more. And I think your organization really helps parents find different ways of doing that. And again, to be surrounded by other people who share the same concerns.
You know, that we do in terms of we want at the very least to be able to make the right decision for our child and not to be prevented from doing so. That's such a strong desire that I think all parents have, that whatever your view on vaccination or any other topic, To preserve the ability for you to choose, I mean, there's nothing more important, which is why the ability to think critically about any decision for your child, to get more information, and to make better decisions, that is what it all comes down to. And again, I think your organization is providing information and support like no other.
So again, I thank you so much for what you and your entire group are doing.
Leah Wilson | 38:56
Yes, you're welcome. It's an honor to be in this with each of our advocates. And we have grown since 2019 was our very first call to action. And since that time, we've gone from zero advocates up to now over 700,000 advocates. And if all 700,000 of those advocates went and brought 10 of their friends, imagine where we would be.
You know, so the multiplication effect, when you're talking about grassroots change is powerful. It's not us being overwhelmed at adding one more.
It's time now more than ever to stand up, to be firm in what we believe and to be unapologetic for our kids.
Len Arcuri | 40:10
I have nothing else to add today. I think that's said very beautifully.
So again, thank you so much for sharing your perspectives and for shedding your light for our audience. I really appreciate, again, everything that you and Stand for Health Freedom are doing. Thanks so much.
Leah Wilson | 40:26
Thank you.
Cass Arcuri | 40:28
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