You're not the boss of me

I was a little shocked to read the Central Health Board Authority put a policy in place that says workers have to get a flu shot or face being sent home without pay if they are sick.

I don't work for Central Health or in the health care field at all but I do have a huge problem with this policy.

How far can an employer go when it comes to what you want or don't want to put in your body?

I had the flu shot a few years ago and I was sick every other week for a year. I swore I would never get it again and I am not! I am in reasonably good health. l take my vitamins including my vitamin C. My immune system is good. I fight off the flu at a pretty fast rate although I have had a few that kept me in bed for a few days. But that's normal.

What's in a flu shot? According to Google: In a flu shot which is actually a shot and not the mist there is the dead virus. It is the actual flu that is dead and then they make it into a shot to administer it into the body in order to help fight off the actual flu.

So you want to shoot me up with a dead flu virus so I don't get the flu! Not happening!

The real question here is how far an employer can go when it comes to your body. Well if they can force you to be injected with a virus against your will, how about forcing you to take contraception?

What about if an employer says, "Well we have a lot of young women on our payroll. I don't want them all getting pregnant at once so our new policy says all women of child bearing years cannot get pregnant until they have been with the company for five years. If you get pregnant without my permission you'll be fired."

Sounds ridiculous I know, but is it really? If an employer could stop women from taking a year off to raise babies would he?

Does an employer own your body as well as your mind?

How about telling women if they are allowed to have an abortion? Even after rape? US Presidential candidate, Republican Mitt Romney, stood behind Indiana Senate hopeful Richard Mourdock who said pregnancies that result from rape are "something God intended."

Not my God. He didn't intend that.

For a long time politicians with penises have been trying to tell those of us with vaginas what we are and are not allowed to do with our vaginas.

Those same politicians with penises make laws that tell us who can touch our vaginas (apparently only people with penises like them), who can live in our vaginas (Only straight babies whether they were a result of consensual or non-consensual sex) and they even make policies about how many people with vaginas can be politicians (Got to have at least 10% in government for the media photo op).

Politicians should not be sticking their nose in our vaginas any more than an employer should be sticking their nose in our immune system!

I'd like to say it's all too foolish to talk about but is it? Think about it.

You have to be injected with a virus to keep your job. What stops an employer from making a person sign an agreement saying they won't get pregnant and take maternity or paternity leave for the first five years of employment? Where does it end

This may sound crazy to men but since Eve took the apple off the tree religious leaders and politicians have been debating and making laws telling those of us with vaginas what we can and can't do with our vaginas for years.

There are no laws about what politicians and religious leaders can do, or not do with their penises.

Is it legal to force an employee to be injected with a virus when they don't want it? I'll leave that up to the legal experts.

Is it immoral? Yes. I think so. Our employers may have our minds but our bodies belong to us.

This is my body. Don't stick your fingers in my immune system and while you're at it, take them out of my vagina too!

You're not the boss of me!