Staff Reports
A chilling bill has been introduced in California that has raised the alarm bells of concerned parents everywhere. The bill would enable mental health professionals to take children as young as 12 away from their parents to undergo care without parental consent. The concerns of parents have been dismissed as the majority of lawmakers who support the bill belong to the Democratic party in California. The bill basically instructs mental health professionals to keep everything confidential from the parents, even if the child is diagnosed with a severe mental problem. The lawmakers claim that the bill is meant to address the recent trend of suicides among children, particularly among Black and Latinx children. The bill asserts that the absence of parental permission could quite often act as a barrier to accessing mental health care, so this bill would alleviate that problem. However, critics of the bill believe the legislature’s ulterior motives are to hinder the parents from treating their gender-confused children.
CA Dems approved a plan to let children as young as 12 check into group homes without parental consent.
Critics say the law will help the state take custody of children whose parents don't support their efforts to change genders.
Via @SusannahLuthi https://t.co/sBZiquo6Qk
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) March 28, 2023
The state-sanctioned kidnapping bill has no provision for an allegation of abuse against the parents or a serious threat of suicide to the child before a school counselor can take the child and send them to a residential facility. This bill leaves the door wide open for abuse of authority from school counselors to take children to a group home without any solid grounds, putting responsible parents into an awkward corner. The bill, besides being a flagrant overreach of government power, is another violation of parental rights, once again. The California lawmakers seem to want to get the parents to raise their children until age 12 and then decide that the State ought to be the one to parent them. This bill could have a ripple effect in other states if passed, and as far as Erin Friday, the co-founder of “Our Duty,” is concerned, it’s all pure state-sanctioned kidnapping. Erin Friday further explains that this bill ensures that a child can be rushed straight to an LGBTQ community facility without even being taken back home.
Parents fear the worst, especially since underage children in California have been allowed to seek psychiatric care for themselves, and teen suicides have been skyrocketing ever since. The advocates of this bill now want to compound parental griefs by making it easier for children to be taken away from their parents without a valid reason, thereby risking their psychological well-being. It is a heartless and thoughtless bill. One can only hope that the other lawmakers in the state will see this for what it is and vote against it.
