INDIANAPOLIS (LifeSiteNews) — Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Braun has signed legislation affirming parental rights in their children’s education, healthcare, religious upbringing, and more.
Senate Enrolled Act 143 clarifies that no government entity may “substantially burden a parent’s fundamental right to direct the: (1) upbringing; (2) religious instruction; (3) education; or (4) health care” of a child unless “required to advance a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive means.”
More specifically, it forbids government from withholding information about a “child’s health care or social, emotional, and behavioral well-being” from a parent as well as coercing a child into doing the same; and empowers parents to sue government entities for violations of their parental rights.
“If a child does not have an affirmative right of access to a specific medical treatment, service, or procedure, then this chapter may not be construed to grant the parent a right to access that medical treatment, service, or procedure on behalf of the parent’s child,” it adds.
“As parents, we need to be the decision maker when it comes to the best interest of our children,” said Republican state Rep. Matt Commons, the bill’s cosponsor. “This new law will protect a parent’s right to raise their children without a school or government entity needlessly interfering.”
The indoctrination of children with radical sexual ideologies and other left-wing agenda items has long been a major concern in American public schools, from libraries to athletic and restroom policy to drag events to classroom materials to even “transitioning” troubled children without parental knowledge or consent. Many schools have also displayed hostility to the rights and employment of individual teachers who refuse to go along with such agendas. In recent years, such trends have provoked a backlash with the election of Republicans such as Glenn Youngkin in Virginia and Ron DeSantis in Florida.
According to the Parental Rights Foundation, 18 states previously had laws on the books specifically protecting parental rights (Indiana brings the total to 19), and 32 states have de facto protections via “strict scrutiny” judicial or statutory standards for any law with implications for “fundamental rights.”
