New California Law Chips Away at Parental Rights

Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., signed a bill into law last month placing the state above the family.

It allows children as young as 12 to decide for themselves whether to leave the family home.

AB665 permits minor children to seek "mental health services" without their parents' knowledge or consent, and allows for the removal of children age 12 and older from their parents' home without a court order.

In short, AB665 takes the courts and parents out of the equation when making important decisions affecting children.

And by so doing, it obliterates society’s most fundamental political unit.

Marian Gondeiro is vice president and legal counsel of Advocates for Faith and Freedom, a California-based nonprofit law firm, dedicated to protecting constitutional rights. She called AB665 one more attempt by the state to take over the duties normally left to the parents — those who know their children the best.

"AB 665 allows minors to check themselves into state-funded residential shelter services without the consent of their parents or guardians," she told Newsmax.

"This is wrong on so many levels. Parents should have a say in what happens to their children, particularly when their mental or physical health is in question."

The organization also argues that parental rights are so fundamental to our society, that they’re protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It provides that no state may "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."

Advocates for Faith and Freedom observes that despite the constitutional protections, left-leaning states routinely attempt to infringe parental rights.

"Today, governments continually seek to replace the role of parents. For instance, liberal states are now passing laws preventing parents from being involved in their child’s medical decisions as it relates to life-altering gender reassignment treatment and surgeries," they say on their website.

"School districts are now preventing teachers from speaking to parents about issues pertaining to their child’s sexual orientation. Schools are even forcing children to read pornographic materials with no educational value."

And opponents to AB665 believe that language contained in the act opens the door for those practices.

For example, it uses the term "LGBTQ+ youth" in reference to minors as young as 12 no fewer than three times:

• "A shocking 78 percent of LGBTQ+ youth who were surveyed shared they had considered suicide, with the vast majority of those who had considered suicide sharing they had done so in the last year, and nearly one-third had made an attempt in the past year.”
• "For LGBTQ+ youth, the rejection from parents, harassment in school, and the overall LGBTQ+ negativity present in society can lead to depression, anxiety, drug and alcohol use, and other negative outcomes."
• "Over one-half of surveyed LGBTQ+ youth reported that not being able to get permission from their parents or guardians was sometimes or always a barrier to accessing mental health services."

Advocates for Faith and Freedom acknowledge that these, and other practices, are becoming far too commonplace throughout the United States.

"School districts are now preventing teachers from speaking to parents about issues pertaining to their child’s sexual orientation. Schools are even forcing children to read pornographic materials with no educational value."

Even children are revolting against these woke policies. Louden County, Virginia, students walked out of classes Wednesday to protest new rules that made all restrooms, locker rooms and shower facilities open to both sexes to accommodate "trans" children.

Advocates for Faith and Freedom also observes that parental rights and obligations even have biblical roots.

"As our culture becomes increasingly devoid of God, it is more important than ever to ensure parents are responsible for caring, raising, and educating their children. Proverbs 22:6 instructs parents to ‘[t]rain up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.'"

Gondeiro concluded that AB665 is one more incremental step toward transferring total control of California’s youth from parents to the state.

"This is another attempt by California lawmakers to remove parents from the equation," she told Newsmax.

"First, it was removing them from educational decisions; now, it is removing them from mental health decisions. This legislation will split families apart and put children at risk."

And tearing families apart may be AB665’s ultimate goal. The family is society’s most fundamental political unit. It’s where the most important decisions are made affecting people’s lives, welfare, and happiness. Get rid of the family all you have left is the state.

Novelist George Orwell observed that "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it."

We have an obligation to continue speaking the truth and hold the state accountable and in check.

Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.