Matt Sharp and Kate Anderson: Yes, parents do have the right to make medical decisions for their children

By Matt Sharp and Kate Anderson

State Senate Bill 5181, a bill that jeopardizes parents’ medical decision-making authority, was recently voted out of the House Education Committee. Apparently, the firestorm that erupted over Sen. Jamie Pedersen’s comment earlier this year about parental rights has fallen on deaf ears.

According to Pedersen, “If (girls are) old enough to get pregnant, they’re old enough to make their own decisions about what happens with their bodies, and parents do not have the right to change that.”

Since the average age of menstrual onset is 11.9 years, Pedersen apparently believes that a parent’s right and duty to guide their daughter’s health care decisions ends in fifth grade. This belief is not only misguided but also contrary to well-established law.

Parents have long been recognized as the primary decision-makers regarding their child’s medical care. As the U.S. Supreme Court explained in Parham v. J.R., “(t)he law’s concept of the family rests on a presumption that parents possess what a child lacks in maturity, experience, and capacity for judgment required for making life’s difficult decisions.”

The high court further noted that “(m)ost children, even in adolescence, simply are not able to make sound judgments concerning many decisions, including their need for medical care or treatment. Parents can and must make those judgments.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit – which interprets federal law for Washington state – put it even more plainly in Wallis v. Spencer: “The right to family association includes the right of parents to make important medical decisions for their children, and of children to have those decisions made by their parents rather than the state.”

The Washington Legislature is poised to ignore legal precedent recognizing parents’ medical decision-making rights and thereby deprive children of their best health care advocate.

If successful, Senate Bill 5181 will rewrite the pro-parent Initiative 2081 passed by the Legislature last year – a citizen initiative signed by nearly 450,000 Washingtonians with bipartisan support. The initiative guaranteed parents’ ability to opt their children out of controversial assignments involving sexuality and religion, to review curriculum and textbooks, and to access their children’s medical records.

Senate Bill 5181 removes several of Initiative 2081’s key provisions, including parental access to medical information and parental notification of medical services offered or given to a child at school.

Parents have a fundamental right to direct their children’s medical care. The U.S. Constitution secures this pre-political right. No state may interfere with fit parents’ decisions on how best to raise and guide their children.

Children need their parents. Parents help children make healthy choices so they don’t choose cupcakes over carrots at mealtime. Parents help children with good hygiene so they don’t choose gum-chewing over toothbrushing at bedtime. Parents help children embrace an active lifestyle so they don’t choose video games over playing outside during downtime.

Children need their parents to be informed and involved with medical treatment and health care decisions. Parents can’t fulfill their duty to their children if they don’t have full access to critical information and records about their child’s health and medical care.

Children don’t know their vaccination history. Many don’t know the extent of their food or medicine allergies and whether they are life-threatening. Others may be unaware of underlying immunodeficiencies that put them at high risk for infection. But their parents do. It’s their job to know.

Preserving parents’ rights is essential to protecting children. When the government doesn’t prioritize parental rights, kids pay the price. Parents are uniquely situated to be the most motivated to do what’s right for their children. They’re also the least-conflicted advocates – inspired by love and affection, not political or professional gain.

Wanting nothing but the best for one’s child, especially for their health and wellness, is a parent’s superpower – one that should be protected, not thwarted, by the government.

Kids are kids. They need their parents to help them make important decisions about their medical care. Every state should seek to protect children by empowering parents to fulfill their duty to raise and nurture them.

States like Idaho, Tennessee and Ohio recently set good examples for protecting children by prioritizing parental rights. But Senate Bill 5181 not only trivializes parents’ rights, it overrules pro-parent protections specifically asked for by Washington’s citizens in Initiative 2081.

A fifth-grade girl might be old enough to get pregnant, but that doesn’t mean she’s old enough to navigate the complexities of life and health care without the wisdom and guidance of her parents. Children need their parents. And it’s the fundamental right of parents to meet that need.

Matt Sharp is senior counsel and director of the Center of Public Policy with Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) in Atlanta. Kate Anderson is senior counsel and director of ADF’s Center for Parental Rights. She resides in Bellevue and obtained her law degree from Gonzaga University.