Parental Rights: More Attacks on the Horizon

Solving the problem of youth suicide has been the focus of quite a bit of legislation this session. The solutions include:

1. Putting in place training programs for students, teachers, clergy, youth leaders, and parents that undermine familial values,
2. Lowering the age of consent for mental health services to 12 years old, and
3. Silencing mental health providers from speaking truth.

All these solutions impede a parent’s ability to care for their children.

The following bills are coming up in committee soon. Please, pray. These bills intentionally are trying to minimize the influence of Christianity on children.

If after reading these, the Lord prompts you to get involved, please contact me (carolyn@chec.org).

HB18-1177 Youth Suicide Prevention

House Public Health Care & Human Services Committee, March 9th, Upon Adjournment, Room: HCR0107

One of the things this bill does is to lower the age of consent for minors to age 12. Twelve-year-old children would be allowed to secure mental health services without parental knowledge or consent. It also sets up a suicide training program, approved by a state department, that clergy, youth leaders, and parents would be able to access. These programs are godless and promote abhorrent lifestyles. Currently, it only recommends access, but you can be sure that at some point the state will try to mandate this training. There is already a bill working its way through the legislature that mandates training for all mental health providers. (View the bill here.)

HB18-1245 Prohibit Conversion Therapy Mental Health Provider

House Public Health Care & Human Services Committee, March 20th, 1:30 PM, Room: HCR0107

In this bill, conversion therapy is defined as therapy that includes “efforts to change behavior or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward individuals of the same sex” for children under the age of 18. If this bill passes, parents will have little to no access to mental health services that do not normalize, and even encourage homosexual and gender dysphoria behaviors. (View the bill here.)

Finally, I encourage you to mark your calendars, register for free, and then attend Homeschool Day at the Capitol on Friday, April 13th. We are hosting a special celebration this year for the 30th anniversary of Colorado’s homeschool law, and we would love to have every homeschool family in Colorado join us! Learn more here.

Trusting in the might power and grace of Jesus!

About the Author: Carolyn Martin

Carolyn Martin serves as CHEC’s Homeschool Legislative Liaison, working for you and other liberty-loving families to protect homeschool freedom, parental rights, and religious liberty at the state capitol. Subscribe to the CHEC blog for Carolyn’s regular updates here, learn more about legal issues in Colorado here, and donate to support Homeschool Freedom here. Contact Carolyn directly at carolyn@chec.org.