Defending Family Autonomy in the Face of Expanding State Control

Discover the heart of a fierce debate that could reshape our nation's future: parental rights versus state influence. As we unpack the intricacies of Washington's Initiative 2081 and its far-reaching consequences for family authority, our discussion traverses the controversial terrain of legislation impacting children's welfare. From bills that challenge the traditional role of parents in the medical decisions of their children, particularly in areas of gender identity, to the potent concept of 'transgender abortion trafficking,' we shed light on the intricate legislative maneuvers that could redefine parental involvement. The pushback from states championing robust parental rights, with Idaho at the forefront, signals a brewing exodus of families in search of safeguarded liberties. 

At the core of this episode lies the unbreakable bond between parent and child; a bond that we argue must be honored and protected against harmful external influences. Hear our passionate plea for the rights of children to the guardianship and guidance only a parent can provide, amidst a backdrop of educational systems potentially overstepping boundaries. The rise of medical interventions offered to minors without parental consent casts a startling spotlight on the need for parental vigilance. We address the delicate balance of nurturing young minds and the potential merit of homeschooling as a shield against unsolicited indoctrination. Engage with us as we not only dissect current policies but also champion the inherent right of parents to be the primary protectors of their children's hearts and minds.

Transcript

Julie Barrett: 0:00

Parental rights is one of the hottest issues in American politics right now and I've been thinking about this issue a lot lately because it's become such a divisive topic and I think that we are thinking about it wrong and we're framing it wrong, and I want to talk to you about that today and share a little bit about my personal experience and a shift in my own perspective, and maybe it'll shift yours as well. Hi, I'm Julie Barrett and you're listening to the Woman's Planing podcast. I'm also the founder of Conservative Ladies of America, which started in Washington state as Conservative Ladies of Washington. We are an organization of like-minded ladies and gentlemen who are working to encourage, empower, educate and equip citizens all over the country to stand up, speak up and take real action to create change in your local community, your city, your county, your state and even on a national basis. You can learn more about our organization and how you can get involved and start taking action by heading over to our website, conservativeladiesofamericacom. I'll also have that linked in the notes for you today. Well, it's been a few minutes since I've done a podcast November 29th to be exact, and today is Friday, march 8th.

Julie Barrett: 1:41

It has been a very busy legislative session. Primarily my focus has been in Washington state, but also dabbling in other states around the country, primarily my new home of Florida, been watching that pretty close and since we're a red state and we have a, you know, republican majority in the legislature, they're passing a lot of really good bills. So there's not as much of a fight against bad policy as there is in states like Washington, oregon, california Also watched Idaho pretty closely this session and, wow, the Republicans in Idaho have done some really good work. So I know there's probably going to be some shifting of people from blue states moving over to red states and I think Idaho is going to be a hot market for people looking to move to states that have a little bit more freedom. And in the in the next coming weeks I will be doing a series of episodes I haven't decided yet if it'll be audio or video or maybe both where I talk about some of these other states and the policies, both good and bad, that have been put into pass through the legislature this session. So stay tuned for that.

Julie Barrett: 3:04

But today I really want to get into the parental rights discussion. In Washington there was an initiative, a citizens initiative, that was passed this week, actually on Monday. It's initiative 2081. And I'll link that up in the notes for you if you want to go take a look at it. But this bill was called a parental bill of rights, pertaining mostly to education, allows parents to have access to their child's curriculum, to their school records, also to any medical records, to be given notice if their child is going to have any medical or mental health treatment during the school day, which in Washington state and many other blue states these are not currently existing law for parents. So your child, if they're 13 or over, can get access to medical and mental health care without parental consent and, in some cases, notification.

Julie Barrett: 4:09

So last session in 2023, washington passed a pair of bills Senate Bill 5599 and House Bill 1469. 1469 is also known as the shield law and that really protects providers and children and anybody who is providing abortion or so-called gender affirming care to minor children of no minimum age. And then Senate Bill 5599 allows for a child who wants those services, also called protected health care services, to live in a host home or a youth shelter without parental notification if they want to access those services. Really, really horrible bills. The shield law 1469 allows children to come from other states and be protected in Washington state under Washington state laws. So it really creates sort of this divide between, and this friction between, states. So if you had, say, a child come over from Idaho for an abortion in Washington, it would protect the child and the provider and anybody that's helping the child. Basically, it's a transgender abortion trafficking bill, and Idaho has passed a bill in their last session against that. So you're and you're going to see just more of that more states passing bills to protect parental authority over their children and to prevent bad actors from taking their kids out of the state for these major medical services. And this has been going on around the country.

Julie Barrett: 5:57

And this initiative that passed was, you know, it's a really big deal, it's a success. It is, however, in conflict with some of the existing laws, and so, when they were, they had to hold hearings on these initiatives and then they went to, they passed out of their committees and then they went to a floor vote on Monday in both the Washington Senate and House, and in the floor speeches, the Democrats made crystal clear that if this initiative in any way would harm those looking to get protected healthcare services, they would be sure to come back and fix it right away. So they really set the stage for basically being able to come back and undo this parental bill of rights, this initiative 2081. And I believe that they passed it in strategy. I don't think any politician wants to come across as not wanting to support parents, and so it would have been a really bad look had they voted against passing a parental rights initiative, and so I believe that they did that to make themselves look good. And then they will come back and, oh you know, the LGBTQ children are at risk. So we are going to have to fix this and everybody will sing their praises because people in Washington for the most part, at least on the West side have really drunk the Kool-Aid. But one of the things I've been thinking over these last couple of weeks as this initiative has been kind of the in the spotlight and our team in Washington has been working to get citizens signing in on it, and we testified on it, as well as the other groups and organizations who you know let's go. Washington was the sponsor of the initiative and so we were trying to support their efforts and help get citizens aware of that. So it's been on the front of my mind and I think we're framing it wrong.

Julie Barrett: 8:04

It just I had like this aha moment and most people don't know because I don't really talk about it anymore, but back in December of 2012, I learned that my three youngest children were being sexually abused by their biological father and that initiated 35 months of criminal court cases and civil court cases. And I never once thought during that process about my rights as a parent. I always thought about it as my children's. My children have a right to be protected. It is my job as their mom to protect them, no matter what it costs.

Julie Barrett: 8:49

And I will tell you, those were the hardest years of my life. I became severely depressed. I became suicidal for a period of time. It went on so long and I was a single mom and I had to shut down my business, and it was just a very dark time in my life and during those times when I couldn't see any other way out besides ending my life, the thing that kept me holding on was, if I'm not here, who protects my children? And that was my duty. My duty was to protect my children. It wasn't my right to have sole access to my children. It wasn't my right to cut off the access of my former husband, my duty was to protect my children. My children had a right to be protected by their mother and when I think about the parental rights issue it sounds selfish. It sounds like we own our children and I know that most parents don't look at it that way. But you can see then, if you're looking at it through that lens, how the left can spin it against parents. If we look at it from the perspective of the child has a right to be protected by their parents and you know overwhelmingly parents are good to their children. We're not. I want to keep the. You know.

Julie Barrett: 10:34

Certainly children being abused is an issue. As I just mentioned, I've been through that fight and those situations need to be addressed and I will be the first to tell you they need to be addressed better than they are, because the way I had to fight to protect my kids, what the government should have been doing to protect my kids, they were not doing, and I know that that is an existing problem and it still happens overwhelmingly in abuse cases today where children are not protected when they should be. But for the for the sake of this conversation, I want to speak generally about the parents who are good parents and the government and the education system and these bad actors really that want to alienate children from their parents. They want to teach children values that are contrary to the values of the family. I mean, you see these moms on Instagram and TikTok and they have you know that, that you'll see them wearing their shirt or holding their sign and you know free mom hugs and I'm your mom now and it's got you know, like a little bear or a unicorn with a rainbow. Encouraging children to make decisions that would cut their parents out of their lives is not natural. Their natural inclination is to be a part of their family and children for the most part feel most connected to and protected by their parents.

Julie Barrett: 12:20

When I think about my son, he was in third grade I think he was just barely nine years old and we were just starting into this whole three year ordeal and my kids were having to talk to a lot of people, whether it was at the county prosecutor's office or the police department. There were just a number of different professionals that were interviewing the children and it was very difficult for these kids and I remember I was driving my son to talk to some. I forget he had an interview with one of those people. I forget who it was, but he was sitting in the back seat of my car and I remember I picked him up from school and we were driving there just the two of us and he was crying and we were having this discussion and I very clearly remember him telling me Mom, the only person I trust in the world is you. And that is the case for so many children. They trust their parent, whether it's mom or dad, maybe both of them. That's what they know. You know my son from the moment he was born.

Julie Barrett: 13:35

I was his person and I even took my son to work with me. I got hired when I was five months pregnant and my boss that hired me she said, well, why don't you try bringing him to work with you? And so I was fortunate to be able to bring him to work for most of the first year of his life and I would sit at my desk and I would have him, you know, put in one of those little baby Bjorn front carriers and and he would just sit in there and sleep while I worked. I mean, I wore my child on my body For so much of his first year and he, you know, we were inseparable and we had built that relationship and that's what. That's parenting right. That's what and that's a maternal instinct.

Julie Barrett: 14:20

So many mothers have that bond with their child and fathers have their own kind of bond with their child, and that is the way God intended For the parent child bond to be and for the parent to nurture and to protect, and for the child to know that they can count on mom or dad or whoever the the parent is, to protect them, and they have a right to that. Imagine, you know and it's hard for me to imagine because I didn't grow up in a time where our teachers and other adults were trying to tell us that Our parents weren't our safe place, and so I can't imagine the confusion that these children must go through as they go to school and they're indoctrinated with these ideas that your parents might not be a safe place. That is so harmful to a child and these adults in the education system and there are great teachers, there are so many great teachers but what's happening is, with the new teachers that are coming in, they've been indoctrinated through the higher education system To be this way and then they're going into the schools and they're teaching these kids that maybe home isn't safe, maybe mom and dad aren't safe, and I think, if we can reframe this issue of So-called parental rights to really being an issue about children, have a right to be protected by parents, the school, the doctors, the, whoever it is, counselors, medical professionals, mental health professionals, whoever these adults are that are in the lives of these children. They do not have any authority to come between a child and their number one protector and provider, and that is, 99.9% of the time, going to be their parents. This agenda is to intentionally divide the child from their family, to make the child think mom and dad aren't safe. That's not my safe place. So and so at school, the nurse at school, my teacher, my counselor, whoever it is at school, that's my safe place. They're going to find me a new family. What do they call it? A rainbow family or a unicorn family? I forget what they call it, but like if your parents don't agree with you choosing to be a non binary or a furry or whatever, don't worry, we'll find you a new family.

Julie Barrett: 17:25

So they're telling these kids these lies about their ability to choose their gender, to choose their sexual identity so confusing, I mean. I think it's so difficult being a kid these days and to have these adults planting these lies in you and not knowing who's safe, what's right, what's wrong, what's what's male, what's female, you know, non binary. I can't even imagine being a child today, but I think that, as the adults, we need to start shaping the conversation around our children and the rights of our children. And our children have a right to know the truth and our children have a right to be protected by their parents from the lies of the enemy. And right now, what we are seeing is children being told hey, if you don't feel comfortable in your body, maybe that's because you were born in the wrong body and you can just go to this doctor over here. Your parents don't even have no, and they'll cut off your genitalia and or create something new for you and you can take these puberty blockers or these hormones and you'll just be. You'll just be a new person, you'll be a new, a new gender, you'll be perfect, you'll be fixed.

Julie Barrett: 18:54

And the physical damage, the mental damage that this is doing to an entire generation of children is absolutely unforgivable. And so I tell people who have children that are of school age homeschool your children. I know that might be hard. I know that. May you know, I was a single mom of four kids for 10 years and it would have been really hard. But if I was, if my kids were still in school today, I would find a way. I would be homeschooling on the weekends, I would be homeschooling in the evening, I would figure something out.

Julie Barrett: 19:32

These people are after the children and the children have a right to be protected and that means that you need to keep them as far away from government, from crazy healthcare people as possible. That may mean that you need to move. I tell parents in Washington state your children are not safe in that state. Even with this new initiative, 2081 parental bill of rights, your children are not safe. If you want to be able to protect your children, you need to find a state that respects the family and the rights of the family.

Julie Barrett: 20:08

So just some thoughts that I wanted to kind of get out of my head and out there into the podcast world, and I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on this.

Julie Barrett: 20:22

Maybe you don't agree with me at all, maybe you do agree and you hadn't really thought about it that way.

Julie Barrett: 20:27

I think, as we go into election season and I'm not running for any office, but if I were, or if I were advising candidates, I would advise candidates to really start shaping this conversation around the rights of children as opposed to the rights of parents, because truly it is about protecting children, and I know that's what we mean when we say parental rights, but it is kind of one of those things that the left can spin it as well.

Julie Barrett: 20:56

Why is it all about you? And you're right, you know you don't own these children and and that's very true these are. You know my children belong to God and he has entrusted me with their care and to do everything in my power to protect them, and I take that very seriously and I know most every parent I know feels that same way. So I'd love to hear your thoughts. You can leave a comment or send an email. I've got my email in the notes and I look forward to being back to making podcast episodes for you all and if you have any suggestions or questions or ideas for episodes that you would like me to do, I'd love to hear from you, always looking for content, ideas from you guys. So thanks for listening and I look forward to chatting with you again next time.