Will SC parents have rights over their child’s health? Legislation has some saying no

What are parental rights? The term seems to have nearly opposite interpretations in the Palmetto State.

While all parents aim to protect their children, there’s a distinct divide in what some guardians view as their right and the state’s right. This has introduced a political battle over a term conservatives redefined, and has some parents feeling like legislators’ efforts are actually taking their rights away.

“All of a sudden, the House has just like basically planted themselves into our doctor’s room with our kids, and is telling us that we no longer have a voice in what is in the best interest of our child,” said Rebecca Bell of Charleston, SC. She and her husband are fearful for the passage of a law, labeled the “Help not Harm” bill, would prohibit transgender youth from receiving gender affirming care. The Bells, whose daughter is transgender, spoke out against the H.4624 to lawmakers in subcommittee.

Parental rights has been one of the most discussed themes in the opening weeks of the S.C. legislative session. While the term has been a national conservative talking point, it made it’s way to South Carolina with two bills, the “Help not Harm” and prescriptions for minors.

“I spent 20 years in the military, protecting their rights,” Rebecca’s husband David Bell said, referencing the lawmakers. “I spent five years of days under the water, protecting their rights, for them to slander my child.”

The Help not Harm bill, which also requires school employees to notify parents if they believe the child is struggling with “gender dysphoria,” passed the House on Jan. 17.

If the bill passes as written, David Bell has considered moving with his daughter to California to get treatment while his wife, Rebecca, stays in South Carolina with their other teenager.

“Trust us, as parents this wasn’t a rash decision, and as I stated at the subcommittee, I mean, no parents are choosing this path for their child or wishing it for them,” Rebecca said. “If it was truly a parent’s choice, my choice would have been for our child to be born in the body that she wanted to be born in. At the end of the day, we want what’s best for our daughter, we do. We want her to be happy, just like every other parent should want their child to be happy.”

While the Help not Harm bill makes its way to the Senate, the prescriptions for minors bill heads to the House. Senators approved legislation Jan. 18 requiring a parent or legal guardian to be notified when doctors prescribe medications to children under 16. The bill, S.882, had originally raised red flags with Planned Parenthood and other organizations because of birth control.

Points of contention for lawmakers included disagreements between children and parents over birth control usage and conversations on teen pregnancy. The bill, however, was amended to lower the age by two years, and excludes children considered homeless, in protective custody because of family abuse, and teen mothers.

When the Help not Harm bill was presented in a subcommittee, 47 people spoke out against the bill, including the Bells, while only one person supported it. Mary Foster, and her daughter Elizabeth Foster, both testified along with teachers, counselors, parents, grandparents, doctors, siblings and advocates. The Fosters emphasized the danger they say it would be to pass a bill like 4624.

In an interview after the bill had moved out of subcommittee, Mary said what is being suggested in the bill is not parental rights. Parental rights should be about caring for her child in a way that she and her husband view as best, not infringing on their decision as parents.

“I think that there’s a group that has used the term parental rights and what they mean is not their rights as parents to control what happens to their own children, but instead what they’re calling parental rights is their rights to influence what other people’s children can and can’t do,” Foster said. “I do think it’s a term that has been twisted to mean something that I wouldn’t necessarily agree with.”

Foster said no one questioned their family when they sought ADD medication for their daughter. To her, the choice to be able to provide health care for her children should be the same.

“The way my family decides to handle whatever issue our children have, or whatever opportunities they have, that’s a parental right,” Foster said. “Legislators shouldn’t get to tell me that I can’t seek medical help when I have a concern about my child’s safety and well being.”

Foster said while her child has been able to transition, she can not fathom what position she would be in if she hadn’t been able to talk to doctors about the process.

“I don’t know what our family would look like today if that had been the case,” Foster said. “We believe in a God who loves our child. We believe that all people are created in God’s image, and that includes transgender people.”

During the House discussion, Republicans brought up numerous instances when children were not protected in schools by discussions and what they considered persuasion of gender identity, as well as children being “mutilated” by doctors.

Jennifer Hannigan, who is the state liaison for Moms for America in South Carolina, said she has been concerned about the issue of gender discussion and persuasion in schools as a mother.

“Instead of teaching them the changes in life, we’re teaching them that if you don’t feel comfortable, you shouldn’t be that gender. You know, that’s what we’re teaching our kids. Your brain is still developing,” Hannigan said.

Hannigan, who has teenage daughters, pulled them from the public school system because of her concerns about what they had been taught regarding sexuality and gender.

“If God created you one way, keep it that way. I have friends that are homosexual, and if that’s what they feel is their, you know, way, but they are against changing children’s genders,” Hannigan said. “Let a child be a child, let their most important decision in life be whether to take the slide or the swing at recess.”

Hannigan said the school’s focus needs to be on educating children on careers and thriving in their own ways, not on deciding what their gender is.

“I have had parents contact me and I’ve seen it personally, where children are going to a teacher or a teacher is going to a child and saying, ‘hey, you don’t feel right in your body, maybe you’re not that gender.’ I mean, right now, they’re changing names, they’re changing things without telling parents, and by the time the damage is done, it makes it almost impossible for a parent to reverse the damage that is done.”

While parents disagree across the board, the term parental rights encompasses much more than what the current national conversation has made it to be, experts say.

Where do parental rights come from?

Josh Gupta-Kagan, a clinical professor of Law at Columbia Law school, who was formerly a professor at USC Law school for nine years, said the concept of parental rights has been one that politicians have grabbed on to, but mostly, for right-wing purposes.

“To describe a bill that takes a parent’s ability to choose health care away from them, to describe such a bill as a parental rights bill is to do violence to the English language,” Gupta-Kagan said. “This is not parental rights.”

The day before the House passed the Help not Harm bill, Florida governor and then-presidential candidate Ron DeSantis made a campaign stop at the state house, where he directly mentioned the Help not Harm bill, and praised lawmakers for taking care of “parental rights.”

During the House discussion, Rep. Adam Morgan, R-Greenville, said “Don’t you think it’s important to report bizarre behavior to parents? Because who knows who has had an influence on that child.”

Gupta-Kagan said the Help not Harm bill is essentially doing the exact opposite of what he and many others view as parental rights.

“Parental rights position is to say ‘let’s let parents choose whether this particular form of health care is right for their children.’ That’s the parental rights view. So, to apply that to a bill that takes that power away from parents is the precise opposite of parental rights.”

However, Gupta-Kagan said the part of the Help not Harm bill that would make school employees alert parents if they suspected them to be questioning their sexuality or gender is a difficult conversation, and can be considered a parental rights fight.

“That’s a complicated issue and there can be strong arguments pro and con, but at least that is a parental rights position,” Gupta-Kagan said.

Gupta-Kagan has studied and worked with law cases regarding parental rights for years, and often sees cases where the government has too much bearing on where a child should be, many times families who are in poverty.

“I think that any politician who uses this rhetoric outta get serious about reforming our family regulation system so that we separate families less. So when I see politicians who use that rhetoric who don’t take that step, it is reasonable to be suspicious.”