by Kerry Dougherty
HB2091 – SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:
Parental access to minor’s medical records; consent by certain minors to treatment of mental or emotional disorder. Adds an exception to the right of parental access to a minor child’s health records if the furnishing to or review by the requesting parent of such health records would be reasonably likely deter the minor from seeking care. Under the bill, a minor 16 years of age or older who is determined by a health care provider to be mature and capable of giving informed consent shall be deemed an adult for the purpose of giving consent to treatment of a mental or emotional disorder. The bill provides that the capacity of a minor to consent to treatment of a mental or emotional disorder does not include the capacity to (i) refuse treatment for a mental or emotional disorder for which a parent, guardian, or custodian of the minor has given consent or (ii) if the minor is under 16 years of age, consent to the use of prescription medications to treat a mental or emotional disorder.
Parental rights continue to be under assault by Democrats in the General Assembly. They will never give this up until they are all voted out of office.
Fortunately, the GOP majority in the House of Delegates will be able to kill HB2091, a bill that would create an avenue for “health care providers” to keep information and treatment of mental or emotional disorders secret from parents.
We all know what “mental and emotional disorders” are code for: transgenderism and other associated behaviors.
The measure was sponsored by Del. Candi Mundon King, of Prince William County. A dozen other far-left Dems proudly affixed their names to this doomed piece of legislation as they boldly declare that they don’t respect the rights of parents to be involved in every aspect of their minor child’s health care.
Sadly, this list includes a number of delegates from Tidewater: Nadarius Clark of Portsmouth, Cliff Hayes of Chesapeake, Angelia Graves of Norfolk, Marcia Price of Newport News, and Shelly Simonds, also of Newport News.
Ironic, isn’t it, that one year after Virginia voters replaced all three top Democrats in Richmond with pro-parental-rights Republicans, the left continues to push its anti-family agenda?
Unless a judge is asked to intervene in cases of abuse or neglect, no teenager should be seeing medical professionals without the knowledge of their parents.
Yes, some parents might “deter” their confused child from being chemically sterilized or having body parts removed if the kid suffers from what has become known as gender dysphoria. So be it. That isn’t child abuse and chances are good that someday the child will thank their parent for caring enough not to allow them to seek treatment before they fully understood the long-term consequences.
If a child wants those often irreversible treatments once they turn 18, they will be free to do it.
Until then they remain in the care of their parents. Even those who don’t do a happy dance when their son announces that he’s their daughter.
This column was first published in Kerry: Unemployed and Unedited and is republished with permission.
