Constitutional Amendment Introduced to Protect Children and Parents

 

I am very excited to announce that we were just able to send out the following press release announcing the introduction of the Parental Rights Amendment in the 113th Congress:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE // June 18, 2013 // Washington, D.C. – Congressman Mark Meadows (R-NC) today introduced a resolution in the U.S. House to amend the United States Constitution to protect children and parents from governmental overreach. The proposed Parental Rights Amendment already has 40 original cosponsors. ParentalRights.org leads grassroots support for the measure.

“In a time when longstanding truths and traditions are being tested, we must safeguard the right of parents to direct their children’s upbringing and education,” Meadows explained. 

“This amendment to our Constitution would ensure that these decisions are made not by faceless bureaucrats but by parents who love their children and know them best.”

Constitutional lawyer and ParentalRights.org president Michael Farris agrees. “Traditionally the Supreme Court has held that fit parents make decisions that are in their child’s best interests. But that presumption is being eroded today in our courts and in U.N. conventions. 

More and more, judges are making decisions based on what they think is best for the child, rather than respecting the natural right of loving parents to make that call.”

The proposed amendment would establish, in part, that “[t]he liberty of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children is a fundamental right.” Other sections establish a high legal standard to protect these rights and a safeguard against international law overriding the parental role. This is the fourth consecutive Congress in which the measure has been introduced.

Support for the Parental Rights Amendment has increased through a number of high-profile incidents in recent months, including a California case in which Child Protective Services removed a baby from his parents’ custody because they sought a second medical opinion prior to heart surgery. And more recently, a bill that would assign a government worker to oversee every child from birth is being considered in Scotland in response to their obligations under the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child. Parental rights supporters believe the proposed amendment will keep such laws from ever being adopted here.

More information on the proposed Amendment, including the full text and a current list of cosponsors, is available at ParentalRights.org. (End press release.)

Action Items

If your Congressman is not yet on board, call or email his office and urge him to cosponsor this important resolution. To find contact information and to see whether he is already on board, click on your state at ParentalRights.org/States.

You might also want to tweet (on Twitter) or post to your congressman’s Facebook page urging support for the Amendment. In addition to making contact (as in a phone call or email), you will be making it public as well. Others can see that you have broached this subject with him, which often inspires a more timely response.

Also, check out our website again on Wednesday or Thursday for a bill number. Now that the bill has been introduced, a number will be assigned within the next 72 hours. As soon as that happens, we will post that number on our website so that you can use it in your correspondence with your representative.

Sincerely,

Michael Ramey
Director of Communications & Research