By RYAN McCANN
Guest Columnist
It is clearer and clearer with each passing year that Parental Rights are under attack, from a culture that is actively devaluing the connections and security provided by strong families.
Thankfully, there are two bills that I would like to introduce to you today that aim to shore up the weak spots in the law and protect the parents and children of Indiana.
Firstly, we need to talk about the Help, Not Harm Bill (HB 1220 and SB 480). This bill has been introduced in the House and the Senate to give maximum visibility to this critical issue. This bill will protect children from permanent life-altering medical interventions made before they are old enough to understand what they are agreeing to.
In any medical procedure, an important element is informed consent. To have informed consent, a patient must be fully aware of the risks and side-effects of a given medical intervention. Children cannot understand what they are giving away when they sign away their healthy body parts, their fertility, and their chance at growing out of gender dysphoria naturally without medical intervention.
The medical industry is supposed to police this internally, with strong penalties for doctors who do not get informed consent from their patients, but they have dropped the ball. The Help, Not Harm Bill forces them to pick it back up.
Just as a child cannot consent to a legal contract, a child cannot consent to the serious long-term harm puberty blocking drugs, opposite-sex hormones and/or surgery to remove health body parts will do to them. It saddens me that we need a law like this to remind activists in the medical community that they must “first, do no harm,” but as this issue has become ideological, they have ignored the best interests of the children involved.
Here in Indiana, we saw that, and are moving to fix it with the Help, Not Harm Bill (HB 1220 and SB 480).
Please, take a moment and reach out to your State Representative and State Senator and let them know you want them to vote “Yes” on the Help, Not Harm Bill. If you click here, we have made it easy.
The second bill I’d like to bring to your attention is HB 1407. HB 1407 strengthens parental rights by stating in clear language that parental rights are fundamental and that refusing to affirm your child as anything other than their biological sex is not a reason for the state to remove your child from your care. We firmly believe that the existing law was intended to provide this protection, but courts and the bureaucracy are interpreting the law in a way that ignores parental rights. HB 1407 will add clear and concise language that cannot be misinterpreted or ignored.
The Cox family has lost so much in this struggle against government overreach, but their sacrifice has highlighted a danger that all parents in Indiana need to be aware of. HB 1407 is an incredibly important bill to help solve this problem.
Please, take a moment and reach out to your representatives and let them know you want them to vote Yes on HB 1407. If you click here, we have made it easy.
These two bills are key to protecting the rights of parents, and the innocence of children.
Ryan McCann is the Executive Director of the Indiana Family Institute. Learn more at HoosierFamily.org.
We also live in a country that practices genital mutilation on most males right after they are born without their consent.