A Washington state bill that would strip parents of the right to intervene in their children’s medical care in certain circumstances passed the House on Wednesday, clearing the way for Governor Jay Inslee to sign it.
“A Youth Support Act,” or Senate Bill 5599, allows foster homes for runaway youths “to house youths without parental permission.” Further, foster homes do not need to inform parents of the whereabouts of their children or if they are receiving medical procedures “if there is a compelling reason not to which includes a young person seeking protected health services”.
“Protected health care services” included “gender-affirming care,” which for minors arbitrarily included anything prescribed by a doctor to treat dysphoria, according to the bill.
“Gender-affirming treatment may be prescribed for Two-Spirit, transgender, non-binary, and other gender-differentiated people,” the bill says.
For minors, “affirmation care” typically included puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgery. It was unclear which services would be approved under the bill.
Instead of contacting parents, shelters can contact the Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF).
Another “compelling reason” for not informing parents that children are staying in a foster home was “circumstances which indicate that notifying the parent or legal guardian will subject the minor to abuse or neglect”.
The bill has been criticized by opponents for being “child abuse”.
The opposition said, according to the text of the bill, “A parent’s job is to protect their child, this bill robs parents of that ability… Gender is in your imagination. This bill legalizes the abduction of children, allows the accommodation of minors and separates us from the union.
After it passed, Democratic State Rep. Tana Senn, who backed the bill, said, “I tell them tonight I see you, I affirm you, I hear you, I love you. “, according to City Hall.
State Senate Republican Leader John Braun criticized the bill for attacking parents’ rights.
“The only thing (the bill) would do harm by driving a wedge between vulnerable children and their parents, at a time when a teenager lacks the perception and judgment necessary to make crucial life-changing decisions. “Braun said. “A parent may not even know why the child ran away and could involve law enforcement or other groups in a desperate search…all the while going through an unnecessary emotional nightmare, imagining the worst of what would have happened. could have happened.”
Other states, such as California, are considering legislation that would restrict parents’ rights. Some critics have accused a bill of “state-sanctioned kidnapping.”
In March, California introduced a bill, currently pending in the state Senate, to allow students to be admitted to a group home without parental consent with the approval of school counselors.
A counselor who testified against the bill said: “It is obvious that one of the results of this bill will be the removal of trans-identified children from the family home.”
“In the dystopian nightmare we find ourselves in, if a parent does not use the child’s chosen pronoun or name, they are labeled as dangerous,” Pamela Garfield-Jaeger said in her testimony, according to Daily Signal.