Trey Paul, FISM News
Attacking parental rights in the face of enormous pushback, including a letter-writing campaign and protests, Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed an extreme bill into law Tuesday that removes parents from the healthcare decision-making process involving their own children.
Senate Bill 5599, which is opposed by thousands in Washington state, allows shelters to stow away runaway children from their parents without any allegations of abuse and goes as far as to allow those same kids to have life-altering, taxpayer-funded sex-change treatments and elective abortions without parental consent.
According to the legislation, shelters would not be required to report runaway kids, as young as 13, seeking sex changes or abortions to their parents. Instead, the bill requires those kids to be reported to the state’s Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF).
Specifically, the bill reads that shelters do not have to notify parents if the child has a “compelling reason” they shouldn’t like “seeking placement in a host home to receive protected health care services.” Those “services” include elective abortions and sex-change surgeries and hormones.
The American Principles Project, a non-profit dedicated to helping families fight back against politics, labeled Senate Bill 5599 as a new law that “allows Washington to keep parents in the dark on runaway kids.”
🚨 “Senate Bill 5599 requires parental notification of a child’s whereabouts unless there are “compelling reasons” to withhold it. Reasons include “gender-affirming treatment” and “reproductive health care services,”” pic.twitter.com/rJRZNjcBKR
— American Principles 🇺🇸 (@approject) May 10, 2023
Under current law, licensed shelters have to notify parents if a child comes into their care within 72 hours.
“Among its many flaws, the bill assumes families that don’t ‘affirm’ a child’s short-term desires are being abusive. Wrong!” said state Rep Jim Walsh (R-Aberdeen), in a statement. “Sometimes love requires parents to not affirm their child’s whims. Loving parents guide their children as they grow. Sometimes that means saying ‘no.’”
Rep. Walsh is just one of the Republican lawmakers in the Democrat-controlled state legislature who unanimously oppose the bill. Others, like Senate Republican Leader John Braun, warn that the bill applies to children from other states outside of Washington.
“The only thing SB 5599 would do is cause harm by driving a wedge between vulnerable kids and their parents, at a time when a teen lacks the perception and judgment to make critical life-altering decisions,” Sen Braun said in a statement. “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 about what might have happened.”
Battles over abortion and transgender care are playing out in other state legislatures as well.
Wednesday, lawmakers in Missouri voted to ban so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors. SB 49, also knowns as the Missouri Save Adolescents from Experimentation (CARE) Act, bans some doctors from prescribing children gender-affirming care, including cross-sex hormones and transition surgeries.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey recently shared his support for the bill on Twitter. He wrote:
I’m extremely pleased with the legislature’s move to halt the mutilation of children in the state of Missouri. As I’ve held all along, there is no scientific evidence supporting these experimental procedures, and I’m proud to have led in the fight to protect Missouri’s children.
I’m extremely pleased with the legislature’s move to halt the mutilation of children in the state of Missouri. As I’ve held all along, there is no scientific evidence supporting these experimental procedures, and I’m proud to have led in the fight to protect Missouri’s children.
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) May 11, 2023
Senate Bill 5599 is scheduled to go into effect in July, but one parent advocate, Dawn Land, is pushing for a referendum.
Cowardly Inslee is signing SB 5599 in private so no one can protest state-sanctioned kidnapping of children
— Dave McMullan (@DaveMcMullan6) May 10, 2023
Seattle journalist Jonathan Choe shared a video from Land, who is trying to get more than 200,000 signatures so the bill ends up on the November ballot. In the video, she said she doesn’t like bullies and transgender ideology and says people from across the board, including people from the LGBTQ+ community, are supporting her.