By Jenni Ryall From Mashable

An anti-vaccination group in Australia has been linked to an image posted on social media that compares vaccinations to rape.

The image, posted on Wednesday on a Facebook page related to the Australian Vaccination-skeptics Network (AVN), has since been deleted after widespread backlash.

The black and white photo showed a man with his hand covering a woman’s mouth and a description: “Forced Penetration: Really- no big deal, if it’s just a vaccination needle, and he’s a doctor. Do you really ‘need’ control over your own choices?”

Even supporters of the group said they believed the ad had gone a step too far. One commenter named Jonathan wrote on the Facebook page: “Good advocacy, bad ad. There are other ways to get your point across just as effectively without being insensitive to people who’ve been through sexual abuse.”

Another, Michele Nichols Sulter, wrote on the Facebook group, the picture “did nothing much for our cause,” adding that she didn’t support this method of spreading the group’s message. “Change your approach, deal with the facts, message gets lost in the controversy… it is embarrassing. We need to be above reproach here and be very careful in referencing sources.”

According to SBS News, AVN spokeswoman Meryl Dorey wrote on Facebook the organisation was not responsible for the controversial image, as the page was “completely independent of the AVN.”

Dorey additionally admitted the picture went too far. “I agree that the image was very much in-your-face and should not have been posted here,” she wrote.

The Facebook page that posted the photo is operated by an AVN member, Ben Rush.

AVN supports personal choice, instead of government involvement, regarding the vaccination of children and promotes the belief that vaccinations can cause autism. No scientific research has proven that this is the case, with a new study being released on Wednesday again debunking these claims.

The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) investigated AVN in 2014 and found the information on its various channels to be “misleading, misrepresented and incorrect.” The information may cause “fear and alarm and detrimentally affect the clinical management or care of its readers,” according to the commission.

It warned readers should seek a second opinion regarding any information sourced from the organisation and also seek the advice of a medical practitioner. AVN lost its charity status in 2014, according to SBS News, and was forced to insert the word ‘skeptics’ into its name.

The Facebook photo kerfuffle follows a recent decision by the Australian government to cut childcare benefits for children who have not been vaccinated. A spike in cases of whooping cough over the last few months in Australia, including the death of a four-week-old baby not yet able to be immunised, along with a recent outbreak of measles in the U.S., mostly centered in the state of California, has revived the debate surrounding the need for vaccinations to protect those who cannot be be immunised due to age.

IMAGE: AVN / FACEBOOK Rape

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