Education and Labor Committee Republican Leader Virginia Foxx (R-NC) introduced yesterday the Parental Right to Protect Act, which safeguards parental rights by ensuring Child Protective Services (CPS) does not penalize parents for protecting their children from gender-transition interventions.
“Parents have the right and responsibility to keep their children safe. This includes making decisions about life-altering medical treatments and interventions,” Republican Leader Foxx said. “Determining your child is not going to receive gender transition interventions is not abuse or neglect—it is a parent rightfully making a decision for his or her child. No system should remove a child, or investigate a family for abuse, based on this decision. Nor should a hospital or state be able to circumvent a parent’s right to decide whether his or her child should undergo gender-transition interventions.”
Parents across the country seeking to protect their children from the harms of gender ideology are losing custody of their children.
In Ohio, a judge removed a 17-year-old biological girl from her parents’ custody after they refused a testosterone treatment recommended by the Cincinnati Children’s gender clinic to address her diagnosed gender dysphoria.
In California, Abigail Martinez lost custody of her daughter and a court permitted only one hour of visitation each week because Ms. Martinez did not want her daughter to receive gender-transition interventions. Tragically, her daughter took her own life after changing her name and starting on cross-sex hormones.
In Illinois, Jeannette Cooper lost a custody battle with her ex-husband over their 12-year-old daughter’s decision to receive gender-transition interventions.
A recently passed law in California allows courts to strip custody from parents who reside in any state if their child goes to California to obtain gender-transition interventions.
While the Biden administration continues to tout so-called “gender-affirming care,” other countries (including the United Kingdom and Sweden) recently suspended their use of this experimental approach on children, recognizing its inherent risks.
Specifically, the Parental Right to Protect Act will:
Ensure CPS does not penalize parents for protecting their children from gender-transition interventions.
Make states that permit CPS to violate parental rights in gender-transition intervention cases ineligible for Title I funds under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act.
Define gender-transition intervention to include both social and medical transitions so parental rights are protected more broadly.
Click here for the bill’s fact sheet.
Click here for bill text.
