The Courage to Question: Jackie Schlegel on Medical Freedom, Parental Rights, & Vaccine Injury
What would you do if the system you trusted to protect your child became the source of their suffering?
In this powerful episode of Politely Rude, Abby Johnson sits down again with Jackie Schlegel, founder and executive director of Texans for Medical Freedom, for a candid and emotional conversation about the growing movement for medical transparency and parental choice. Jackie opens up about her daughter Ashlyn’s vaccine injury — an experience that changed her life, launched her into advocacy, and continues to fuel her fight for accountability in public health.
Together, Abby and Jackie unpack the dramatic expansion of the childhood vaccine schedule, the historic 1986 law that granted vaccine manufacturers immunity from liability, and what the medical freedom movement is doing today to protect families’ rights to informed consent. From COVID to children’s health crises, they ask hard questions about how we got here — and where America must go next to restore trust, truth, and compassion in healthcare.
