Tag Archives: Topic: Parental Rights

WorldNetDaily: An appeals court panel in Sweden has imposed the “death penalty” on a homeschooling family, granting the state full custody of their son, who famously was “state-napped” from a jetliner in 2009 as the family prepared to move to India. The appeals panel reversed a lower court ruling that granted Annie and Christer Johansson custody of their son, Domenic. But if the decision is not reversed again by the nation’ Supreme Court, the Johansson’s will lose their son, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association, which has been working on the case with the Alliance Defending Freedom . . .

LifeSiteNews: A district judge in Iowa has ordered the state to list a lesbian couple as the parents of a stillborn child on his death certificate.

Barbara Kay at the National Post: In 2008, however, Quebec introduced a province-wide program called Ethics and Religious Culture (ERC) running throughout elementary school, and all but one high school year. Every Quebec student — even the homeschooled — is obligated to take this state-composed program. And teachers, whatever their beliefs or religious affiliation, must teach it.

Liberty Counsel: Late last night, Liberty Counsel filed a request for an emergency appeal and declarations in support of our appeal, asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to block California law SB 1172 which goes into effect on January 1, 2013. The law will ban any counsel that seeks to reduce or eliminate same-sex sexual attractions, behavior, or identity.

Washington Times: Reproductive-rights activists said Tuesday they were preparing another push to lobby the Obama administration to loosen restrictions on “emergency contraception” to women of any reproductive age.

LifeNews: The Senate is expected to vote on the pro-abortion CRPD treaty on Wednesday and pro-life groups are asking pro-life advocates to contact members of the Senate urging them to vote against it.

The Hill: he Stop Harming Our Kids Resolution, H.Con.Res. 141, is a sense of Congress resolution that finds efforts to change the sexual orientation of minors are harmful, and should be prohibited.

Naple News: In a case that offers a glimpse of the complexity of Florida’s parental-notification of abortion law, a divided appeals court this week overruled a Polk County judge and said a 17-year-old girl could receive an abortion without her mother being told. | In re Petition of Jane Doe

One News Now: After a rocky road of legislation challenging parental and religious rights at every turn over the past months in California, public schools continue to be a breeding ground for policies geared to eradicate all Christian influences from students.

AP: Lee said the treaty, which states that disabled people around the world should enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms, could subject U.S. law to a U.N. bureaucracy. He said he had “grave concerns for the sovereignty” of the United States.

Catherine Glenn Foster appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss the case. | MP3 audio 12:38 mins

HSLDA: The Social Welfare Committee responsible for keeping Domenic Johansson separated from his parents for more than three years has appealed the June 2012 court ruling that upheld Christer and Annie Johanssons’ parental rights.

Christian Institute: Techniques which would create genetically modified babies should be “urgently opposed”, a bioethics group says. The Anscombe Bioethics Centre gave the warning as a Government-backed consultation approaches its conclusion. Commenting on the two techniques being considered, the centre said: “One technique would split genetic motherhood and give the child three genetic parents.

One News Now: The legal guardians, acting on the basis of their faith, were in Washoe County Family Court arguing in favor of the life of the unborn child for three weeks. Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Catherine Glenn Foster was pleased when the court finally decided this week in favor of life.

A Nevada court Wednesday refused to force a mentally handicapped woman to undergo an abortion against her and her parents’ will.

LifeSiteNews: The passage of the Children’s Rights Referendum in Ireland this weekend – 57.4 per cent to 42.6 per cent – is a blow to families, NO campaigners have said.

Jennifer Roback Morse at the Ruth Institute: The policy proposal known as “same-sex marriage” is actually a proposal to redefine marriage. Instead of being a gender-based institution oriented toward the procreation of children and the good of the spouses, what is called “same-sex marriage” makes marriage into a genderless institution, oriented toward the good of adults only. Any possible negative consequences for children, according to this way of thinking, are not worth considering. We, and the children themselves, must simply accept any negative outcomes as collateral damage on the road to the nirvana of “marriage equality.”

LifeNews: Nevada District Court Judge Egan Walker has agreed that a pregnant 32-year-old mentally disabled woman will not be forced to have an abortion against her will.

Deseret News: The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Davis School District, contesting the district’s decision last spring to remove a book from elementary library shelves that depicted a family with same-sex parents

LifeSiteNews: End this pregnancy and tie her tubes.’ That was the stark advice given by a a court-summoned doctor in a possible forced abortion case involving a mentally handicapped woman in Nevada, according to a transcript of a Nov. 1 hearing obtained by LifeSiteNews.

Daily Journal: A sharply split New Jersey Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a parental rights law that a couple claimed discriminates against infertile women. New Jersey law holds that an infertile man whose wife is artificially inseminated with his permission is the baby’s father. But it doesn’t give parental rights to an infertile woman whose husband’s sperm is used to impregnate another woman, even if the wife gives permission. | In the Matter of the Parentage of a Child by T.J.S. and A.L.S., h/w (A-130-10) (067805)

One News Now: Government officials in Ireland say a constitutional amendment which would give greater state control over children is set to be approved with an approximately 60 percent “yes” votes.

Ken Klukowski at Breitbart: It’s enough to make your head spin with the implications. What would a “divorce” look like? Can you divorce one partner but not others? What about child custody? For that matter, how many of the adults in the marriage have parental rights over the children? So we’re in a brave new world when it comes to the very definition of what we call a family. It will be interesting to see if all of these other proposed family units make Americans rethink whether we want to redefine the institution of marriage at all.

Jurist: Voters in Ireland on Saturday approved a constitutional amendment [text] on children’s rights that changes existing wording in the constitution to make certain rights more explicit.

How Appealing links to coverage of the ruling and provides some additional information. | U.S. v. Boland

Pro Life Blogs: Irish voters will take up a referendum this Saturday to decide whether or not to surrender their parental rights to the government. The referendum would insert a “child rights” amendment into the Irish constitution and open families up to forced adoptions and the use of the “best interests of the child” standard in “all proceedings.”

Catholic Culture: “Other publicly funded Catholic school boards in Alberta, and across Ontario (with the exception of Halton region), support the vaccine, which is funded by the federal government,” The Globe and Mail stated in an editorial. Calgary Catholic school trustee “must show leadership and adaptability and choose to protect children – rather than risk being forced to.”

AP: The Nevada Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a request to block a judge’s hearings into the health risks of a mentally impaired woman’s pregnancy.

“The caring concern of parents for the health of their young daughters is more important than an abortionist’s bottom line. Montana voters have wisely passed this common-sense law to ensure that parents can protect their daughters from abortionists who prey upon vulnerable young girls. The voice of an abortionist should not be allowed more weight than the voice of parents when their daughter is pregnant.”

LifeNews: There are 37 states that require parental notification or permission before a minor can get an abortion. Montana is one of just 13 states without this common-sense policy. However, 70 percent of voters in the state approved Legislative Referendum 120, which takes a step toward solving this problem. LR-120 would require an abortion practitioner to notify a parent of a girl younger than age 16 before performing an abortion.

Eugene Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy: The problem? The parents wanted to change the children’s last name to a name other than either the mother’s or the father’s, plus (and it’s not clear how relevant this ended up being) they had changed one child’s name three years before. From In re Kobra, 2012 WL 5373490 (N.Y. City Civ. Ct. Oct. 26) . . .

Religion Clause Blog: While the Presidential contest obviously looms largest at the polls tomorrow, those interested in church-state and religious liberty issues are watching a number of down-ballot issues and contests . . .

Catholic Herald: However, they were defeated today as the Charity Commission argued that the charity’s stance is “divisive, capricious and arbitrary” and undermined the dignity of homosexual couples whose parenting abilities are “beyond question”.

LifeNews: The Nevada Supreme Court has been asked by an attorney for the guardians of a pregnant mentally disabled woman not to force her to have an abortion.

Las Vegas Review Journal: The tough question used to be: “Who’s your Daddy?” But now the Nevada Supreme Court has to decide an even tougher question: “Who’s your Mama?”

AP: A Nevada state judge says he’s got the authority to order an abortion for a pregnant 32-year-old mentally disabled woman, even against the will of her Catholic adoptive parents.

Las Vegas Review Journal: Should a mentally challenged adult woman be required to have an abortion over the objections of her parents?

C-FAM: A mood of hostility in Germany toward Christianity comes across in the numerous instances of vandalism, destruction of property, and defamatory displays listed in the report.

LifeNews: However, today, in Nevada, the life of an 11-week-old unborn baby and the future of his or her 32-year-old mother hang in the balance as a judge considers whether or not to order the woman to undergo an abortion and sterilization against her will.

Fox News: A 27-year-old Davenport man has been accused of biting his 4-year-old stepchild in order to punish the child.

World Net Daily: Norbert Blum, a prominent member of Angela Merkel’s German CDU party who served as Helmut Kohl’s minister of labor for 16 years, has said Germany’s modern education system is “usurping” children and ignoring the important role parents must play in education.

Christian Institute: Schoolgirls as young as 13 are being given birth control injections and implants without their parents’ knowledge during their lunch break.

How Appealing links to a news report and the ruling in Walker v. Blair.

NJ.com: A woman who arranges for a surrogate to give birth by using someone else’s eggs cannot be considered the mother unless she adopts the child, a sharply divided state Supreme Court ruled today. | In the Matter of the Parentage of a Child by T.J.S. and A.L.S.

AP: But days after Austin-Knight’s children were put in foster care, she met foster mother Krista King at a park as part of an effort in Florida to encourage more foster parents to communicate with birth parents, let them talk to their children and honor their child-rearing wishes. Similar programs are in California, Virginia and New Mexico. Several other states – including Oregon, New Hampshire and Washington – provide legal representation or mentorship for birth parents.

Caplan AL, Hoke D, Diamond NJ, Karshenboyem V., J Law Med Ethics. 2012 Sep;40(3):606-11. doi: 10.1111/j.1748-720X.2012.00693.x.

Abstract
Can parents who choose not to vaccinate their children be held legally liable for any harm that results? The state of laboratory and epidemiological understanding of a disease such as measles makes it likely that a persuasive causal link can be established between a decision to not vaccinate, a failure to take appropriate precautions to isolate a non-vaccinated child who may have been exposed to measles from highly vulnerable persons, and a death. This paper argues that, even if a parent chooses to not vaccinate a child under a state law permitting exemptions, that decision does not create complete protection against liability for the adverse consequences of that choice.

LifeNews: While most pro-life Americans are understandably focused on the Presidential election and key Congressional races, citizens in several states will also vote on life-related ballot initiatives on November 6th. Below is a summary of these initiatives, and why they are important.

Fox News: “There’s a deep concern that the Encinitas Union School District is using taxpayer resources to promote Ashtanga yoga and Hinduism, a religion system of beliefs and practices,” the parents’ attorney, Dean Broyles, told the North County Times.

U.S. v. Child, No. 11-30241 (Before: Mary M. Schroeder, Stephen Reinhardt, and Milan D. Smith, Jr., Circuit Judges. Opinion by Judge Reinhardt) Opinion Excerpt: Timothy Eric Wolf Child, a Native American, appeals a special condition of supervised release imposed by …

Casey Mattox appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss the Alaska parental notification ruling. | MP3 audio 13:26 mins

Religion Clause Blog: According to Chabad Lubavitch News, an appellate court in Sweden yesterday struck down a law that barred Chabad parents from home schooling their children through Chabad’s International Shluchim Online School and private lessons.

LifeSiteNews: Irish pro-life and family observers are warning that an upcoming referendum to amend the constitution regarding the “rights of the child” is in reality a “power grab of monstrous proportions” by government aimed at erasing the natural rights of parents and of children.

Christian Institute: The morning-after pill is being given to girls as young as thirteen at schools in Scotland, without parental consent.

Religion Clause Blog: In Caviezel v. Great Neck Public Schools, (2d Cir., Oct. 12, 2012), the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court and rejected parents’ constitutional challenges to New York’s denial to them of a religious exemption from the requirement their children be vaccinated in order to attend public schools.

Alan Sears at Townhall: France plans to ban the words “mother” and “father” in legal language concerning marriage in that country. The goal is to further communicate the message that “marriage is a union of two people, of different or the same gender.” But the result is certain to be more children without mothers or without fathers in the home. And here’s the question—how long will it be before someone attempts to duplicate this proposed ban in America

An Alaska court Monday upheld most of a voter-approved state law that requires at least one parent to be notified before a minor child can obtain an abortion.

LifeNews: In Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest v. State of Alaska, the Superior Court for the State of Alaska ruled that the parental notification law, which requires an abortion provider to give notice to a parent or guardian before performing an abortion on a minor, does not violate the state’s constitution. The court also upheld provisions requiring that the parent or guardian provide valid identification and providing for criminal penalties for those who violate the law.

Sacramento Bee: A court ruling sending a Native American girl back to Oklahoma from her adoptive South Carolina family has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. | Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl (Petition for Cert.)

Wisconsin Gazette: Vermont woman says the ex-partner who took their daughter and fled to Nicaragua and the Christian-right activists who aided her are guilty of racketeering and kidnapping. Janet Jenkins’ lawsuit, filed in August in the U.S. District Court for Vermont, alleges civil rights abuses, conspiracy, money-laundering, kidnapping, mail fraud and violations under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

CBN: California Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed a controversial bill that would have allowed children in the state to legally have more than two parents.

HSLDA: Arguing that homeschooling damages children and is an abuse of parental authority, a German district court in Darmstadt transferred the custody rights of Dirk and Petra Wunderlich’s four children to the Jugendamt, Germany’s child protective agency.

LifeSiteNews: The Radiance Foundation, in partnership with the Virginia Coalition for Life, has launched a wide-scale TooManyAborted.com billboard campaign in Hampton Roads, Virginia, with the messaging: “Fatherhood Begins in the Womb.”

Liberty Counsel: In anticipation that California Governor Jerry Brown would sign the new law banning change therapy, Liberty Counsel has been preparing a lawsuit on behalf of counselors, parents and their minor children, and the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH).

TBO: Before the Brevard County couple split up, the genetic mother had donated an egg that was fertilized and implanted in the other woman, who gave birth in 2004. The couple separated two years later, and a trial court granted sole custody to the birth mother. An appellate court disagreed and said the women should share custody.

C-FAM: A surprise attempt to pass the UN Disability treaty in the U.S. Senate last Thursday was thwarted when Senator Mike Lee announced he and 36 other senators object to passing any treaty at this time. The 37 senators are enough to block treaties.

HSLDA: By defining “physical injury” to include the infliction of pain on a child, spanking has become a crime in Delaware punishable by imprisonment. Under the new law, a parent causing “physical injury” (e.g., pain) to a child under age 18 would be guilty of a class A misdemeanor and subject to one year in prison.

Christian Institute: Parents who home-school their children could be forced to register with their local council, under new Welsh Government proposals.

Acton Institute Blog: It is alarmingly clear that so-called “Obamacare” has troubling implications for parents and children, not just employers with religious convictions regarding artificial birth control and abortion. According to an article in the National Catholic Register, Matt Bowman, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, Obamacare: “tramples parental rights” because it requires them to “pay for and sponsor coverage of abortifacients, sterilization, contraception and education in favor of the same for their own children.” [more]

LifeNews: A new opinion column claims sex-selection abortion is a “parental right.” The logic, if you will, goes something like this: if abortion is a right and selecting the gender of a child via reproductive technologies is a right, then selecting gender via abortion is also a right.

Fox News (includes video): The New York City Department of Education is providing morning-after pills and other birth control drugs to students at 13 city high schools.

Thomas More Society: Thomas More Society’s special counsel Paul Benjamin Linton, Esq., will argue before the Illinois Supreme Court today at 9 a.m., seeking to intervene in a lawsuit brought bythe Illinois ACLU in an attempt to declare the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995unconstitutional.

HSLDA: Despite an earlier threat to discuss new legislation to create homeschool regulations, we are happy to report that the Kansas State Board of Education’s agenda for its coming September 18–19 meeting contains no reference whatsoever to homeschooling or private schools. This saga began on Tuesday, August 14. The Lawrence Journal-World reported Board Chairman David Dennis as saying that perhaps the board should propose legislation to increase state reporting requirements for homeschoolers to ensure that children are being taught. The board agreed to discuss the issue further at its September meeting.

LifeNews: The BBC reports this morning on the launch of a new consultation by the HFEA (Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority) into a new controversial fertility treatment which creates embryos from two women and one man to prevent life-threatening disorders.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: In a previous post, our friend Grégor Puppinck informed about a case currently pending before the European Court of Human Rights in which the petitioners, a lesbian couple from Austria, claim to have been victims of “discrimination” because the Austrian legislation does not allow homosexual adoption. As Grégor explains in more detail, one of the two applicants has a child from a previous (heterosexual) relationship; the father of that child is still alive, pays alimonies, and has no intention to renounce to his paternal rights. What is deeply disturbing about this case is not that every now and then there are people who file such frivolous and manifestly absurd applications, but that the Court decides to hear them.

LifeSiteNews: As a Calgary lobby group threatens a lawsuit against the city’s Catholic school district over its opposition to the HPV vaccine, the city’s bishop is questioning their chances.