The Pardo family in Texas was finally reunited after several months, all charges against the parents were dropped. (They had been accused of seeking medical attention their 4-year-old child did not need, although the court later found that any treatment he received had been prescribed by his treating doctors.)
A group in Minnesota is currently working on a settlement in a class action lawsuit against Hennepin County to correct unfair practices in the county’s child welfare system.
And in Illinois, another group of parents is filing their own lawsuit against a hospital where babies were taken in and injected with vitamin K without parental approval, even if state law guarantees parents the right to make that decision.
This is the trend in America today: more and more eyes are being opened to the inappropriate treatment of children through the violation of parental rights. More and more people are taking a stand demanding the changes that need to be made.
The system has been broken for decades, but its dysfunction has been hidden in the shadows. Things start to change as more and more light hits those nooks.
This year was the twelfth year for ParentalRights.org to play a significant role in bringing that light to light.
During the first half of the year, we coordinated with a bipartisan coalition and proposed real changes to Congress that could be employed by reauthorizing the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, or CAPTA.
Congress has so far failed to pass any significant change, but in the process we narrowed down what we were looking for and discovered other ways to pursue it.
So, over the summer, we began drafting model state statutes that could have the same effect, one state at a time.
During the last quarter, we finalized this language in preparation for the 2020 legislative sessions.
Over the past month, we’ve spoken with lawmakers interested in pre-filing these parental rights bills.
In the past two weeks, our president attended the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) policy summit to present our concerns and encourage state legislators to take a position that protects families. His presentation resulted in new contacts – new state legislators seeking to take up our ideas.
Now, even as things wind down for the holidays, we are gearing up for the January legislative session. States like Colorado, South Dakota, Kentucky and Florida will pass bills to protect parental rights and save children from unnecessary intrusions and trauma.
Thank you for being with us throughout 2019 and for continuing the journey together in 2020.
Together we shine the light and make a difference!
Sincerely,
Michael Ramey
Executive Director
