CA Lawmakers Try to Give Therapists Authority to 'Liberate' 12-Year-Olds from Parents

The California Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced Assembly Bill (AB) 665 to allow children as young as 12 years old to consent to their own mental health care and to be placed into state-funded group homes without parental permission or knowledge. 

The California Family Council is warning the bill would allow mental health professionals to give children services upon their request, even if the children are not experiencing abuse or neglect at home. The bill empowers a child to decide whether to leave his or her family or get counseling at the age of 12. 

Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo (D) and state Senator Scott Wiener (D), the co-authors of the bill, reiterated on Tuesday they want to give all children access to mental health services, as privately insured minors from age 12 can already receive outpatient therapy without parental consent, according to The Washington Free Beacon. 

The bill would specifically apply to children currently in Medi-Cal, the state Medicaid program that provides health coverage to eligible low-income residents.

"This bill protects children. It makes children safer. It makes children healthier," said Wiener. "It's unfortunate that this bill, like so many, has been caught up in this right-wing outrage machine."

"We would never move a piece of policy that takes away parental discretion, to allow children to not have access to their parents," Carrillo told assembled parents, drawing audible scoffs during a recent forum, The Free Beacon reported. "There's been a lot of misinformation and lies about this bill to the point that it has national and international attention as to how we treat mental health services for young people in the United States and California."

In a recent article, California attorney Erin Friday argues the real intent of this bill "is to make it easy for the 10,000 new mental health providers that will be disseminated onto California public school campuses to convince your 12-year-old child that a 'chosen' family is better than your real family, especially if her real family will not agree to transgender interventions."

"Once a child is deemed a 'runaway,' or is in the foster care system," the attorney continued, "He can dictate his own gender interventions."

"This bill is a mechanism to find parents implicitly 'abusive' for not transitioning their kids," Friday warned. 

"It is notable that Sen. Wiener, who is not a parent, is also the co-author of AB 957, which will insert into California law the statement that 'it is in the best interest of the child to affirm their gender identity.' Make no mistake, 'affirm' means only one thing: introduce harm into the bodies of our perfectly healthy kids with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and irreversible surgeries," she noted. 

In 2022, a law Wiener wrote went into effect, allowing California courts to take "temporary emergency jurisdiction" for a child present in the state who has been unable to obtain puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or gender surgery elsewhere.

AB 665 is just the latest in a list of California bills that undermine parental rights and oversight.

CA Bill AB 957 Says Parents Could Lose Their Children if They Don't Affirm Trans Identity

As CBN News reported earlier this month, the California state Senate held a hearing on a proposed amendment that would classify parents who do not endorse their child's gender confusion as abusive and, if passed, it could result in a child's removal from their family's home.

AB 957 already requires courts to consider whether parents are "affirming" their child's gender confusion in custody battles, but a proposed amendment "would include a parent's affirmation of the child's gender identity as part of the health, safety, and welfare of the child."

The new amendment alters California Family Code and would allow courts to step in if a family disapproves of transgender ideology. 

"This means that parents in custody fights will have a material incentive to support affirmation as a means of gaining custody and judges will have to give priority to that issue when weighing and balancing the social factors that always are part of such cases," writes Wesley Smith, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism.

Democratic Assemblymember Lori Wilson, who has a transgender son, and state Senator Scott Wiener wrote the proposed amendment after it passed California's State Assembly on May 3.  

The revisions must be approved before the bill becomes law. 

"This particular bill adds the very important factor that affirming a child's gender identity is in their best interest," Wilson said. 

Jay Richards, the director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at The Heritage Foundation, called AB 957 a "grotesque violation" of parents' rights. 

"While more and more European countries pound the breaks on ghoulish gender medicine for kids, California has decided to mandate it," he wrote. 

READ  'Medically Appalling': New Studies Confirm Transgender Transitions Harmful to Children

Richards continued, "They not only want to make sure that any child with discordant feelings toward his or her sexed body gets fast-tracked to cross-sex hormones and sterilizing surgery, state Democrats want to go after parents who might otherwise hesitate. This is a grotesque violation of both children's and parent's rights."

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