THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION/ Sarah Parshall Perry-
In the dark of night on the last day of the legislative session in Washington state, Senate Democrats passed Senate Bill 5599, a breathtaking evisceration of parental rights. The bill would allow the state to legally hide runaway children from their parents if the parents don’t consent to their child’s “gender transition” or abortion. No allegation of abuse in the household is required.
This bill also applies to children from other states who may travel thousands of miles for such procedures not available to them at home, cementing Washington as a “sanctuary state” for runaway teens. And if that wasn’t enough, the bill allocates up to $7.5 million of Washington taxpayers’ money to the Office of Homeless Youth Prevention and Protection to provide grants to organizations to pay for gender transition and abortion procedures.
All Democrats voted yes; all Republicans voted no.
Sure, Washington’s bill does lip service to providing parents with notification of the whereabouts of their runaway minor children. But there is no such obligation if a “compelling reason” exists not to do so. And that’s the bill’s real poison. Continue reading…
