GOP bill would protect parents who refuse to transition their child’s gender

EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., introduced a bill Tuesday that would protect parents from losing custody of a child if they refuse to allow the child to undergo social or medical gender transitions.

“Parents have the right and responsibility to keep their children safe,” Foxx, a ranking member on the House Committee on Education & Labor, told Fox News Digital. “This includes making decisions about life-altering medical treatments and interventions.”

“Determining your child is not going to receive gender transition interventions is not abuse or neglect — it is a parent rightfully making a decision for his or her child,” Foxx continued. “No system should remove a child, or investigate a family for abuse, based on this decision. Nor should a hospital or state be able to circumvent a parent’s right to decide whether his or her child should undergo gender-transition interventions.”

The Parental Right to Protect Act seeks to safeguard parents’ rights by preventing Child Protective Services (CPS) from penalizing parents who oppose their children undergoing “gender-transition interventions,” which the bill defines as “social and medical” transitions.

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According to a fact sheet released by Education & Labor Republicans, the bill would ensure that CPS cannot take a child away from a parent due to the parent’s unwillingness to support “gender-transition interventions.”

The bill would also make a state ineligible for Title I funds under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act if the state’s laws permit CPS to step in if a parent opposes their child undergoing a “gender-transition intervention,” according to the fact sheet.

“Bottom Line,” the fact sheet concludes. “Parents should be able to make medical decisions for their children without fear of the government taking their child away.”

The fact sheet cited several instances across the country when CPS has intervened in such cases. In February 2018, an Ohio judge placed a 17-year-old transgender teen in the custody of his grandparents after the teen’s mother and father, citing their religious beliefs, refused to let him undergo hormone treatment as part of his transition.

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In September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation that will block state officials from enforcing laws from other states that hinder access to transgender medical procedures and drugs. 

The bill will “strip custody from parents who reside in any state if their child goes to California to obtain gender-transition interventions,” the Republicans’ fact sheet stated.

Under the California law, state agencies and law enforcement organizations are now banned from cooperating with subpoenas and other out-of-state legal actions on these matters, and both children and parents seeking to obtain or provide transgender services are shielded from legal consequences.

Fox News’ Jon Brown contributed to this report.