The Assault on Parental Rights

 

The sacred bond between parent and child is recognized in America as a fundamental right for parents to direct the upbringing of their children.  This right is protected by the United States Constitution, and characterized by the Supreme Court of the United States as “perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court.”  That right, however, is under assault.

My recent article, The Assault on Parental Rights from Covid to Life Support, details stories around the country of parents fighting to protect their children’s lives where they have been thwarted in doing so, from hospitals removing children from life support, to taking newborn babies from mothers testing positive for Covid-19 with a false positive, to parents fighting to protect children from bathroom assaults, to gender dysphoria instruction, to early exposure to sexual content. 

 

During the regular 2020 General Assembly session in Virginia, House Bill 580 (HB 580) was introduced that would have redefined “child abuse and neglect” to include any “mental harm inflicted by a parent due to a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity” to allow removal of a child from his or her home by the Virginia Department of Social Services. While the bill, failed its mere introduction is a harbinger of the sharp attack on parental rights that could take place in the upcoming Virginia legislative session.  A policy like this would have a crushing effect on parental rights, making it very difficult for parents to guide their children in very sensitive matters. Virginia already uses an anonymous sex text line called BrdsNBz sex text hotline managed by the Virginia Department of Health that encourages children to text about sex without their parents’ knowledge or consent. 

 

Parents – not politicians, unelected officials, nor schools – have the distinct privilege and responsibly to care for their children and to direct their health and education.  Parents should be able to do this without government institutions or third parties invading that special relationship between parents and their children. In the most recent election, Washington State became the very first state where the voters themselves made a decision on sex education approving Referendum 90 to uphold the state’s highly controversial mandatory public school sex-education curriculum – a curriculum that teaches kindergartners confusing messages about gender, promotes ideologies, and teaches older students things like “affirmative consent” for sexual activity. An example of how things like this are already happening in Virginia occurred at a high school in Albemarle County in 2018, when 14-year old freshman girls were required to watch sexually explicit “how-to” videos in a Family Life Education class.  In response to events like these, the Family Foundation of Virginia has created a Family Life Education Parent Resource Center, which provides parents with links to each school division’s website, parent portals, and links to any online curriculum that have already been made available. 

Family restoration means that it is a parents’ right and honor to have meaningful conversations with their children. That sacred bond with your kids is too precious to waste, or to allow to be under assault.