A parental rights organization has set a goal to defend parental rights: a constitutional amendment.
Erin Phillips of advocacy group Power 2 Parent says the latest example of parents fighting the power of the state unfolded in Arizona, where a doctor called child protect services after a mother refused to admit her child to the hospital despite the doctor advising the child was suffering from meningitis.
“They sent the police to the home, and they ended up forcibly removing the children from the home in the middle of the night and taking those kids into custody,” Phillips recalls, “because the parents used their parental rights, and their parental judgment, to not take a child to a hospital who didn't need to be taken to the hospital.”
It turned out, in fact, that the child’s fever had broke y by the time police arrived at the front door.
A constitutional amendment is a long shot for any topic, since it must be ratified by 38 states, but Phillips says the pro-parent group is encouraging the public to have its say over the issue.
“We felt really strongly that even though we believe that parental rights is a constitutionally protected right,” she tells OneNewsNow, “that isn't being upheld in every case.”
Parents can support the effort by signing the petition here.