Parts of Washington State’s Parental Rights Law Criticized as a ‘Forced Out’ Put on Hold

SEATTLE– A judge has suspended parts of a new Washington state parental rights law, derided by critics as a “forced exit” measure.

King County Superior Court Judge Michael Scott on Friday suspended parts of the law while a lawsuit filed by civil liberties groups and others is pending, The Seattle Times reported.

The law, known as Initiative 2081, came into force on June 6. A provision of the law that outlines how and when schools must respond to parents’ records requests was suspended on Friday, as was a provision that allows parents to access their students’ medical and mental health records.

Other provisions of the law will remain in effect for now, including a section that gives parents the ability to exclude their children from chores and other “student commitments” that include questions on topics such as morality, religion, sexuality and politics.

Adrien Leavitt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, which is one of the groups that filed the lawsuit, said the organization was pleased that the ruling would prevent parts of the law from “causing further harm” while it seeks a ruling. Final. .

“(The initiative) gave parents this new right to obtain any medical or mental health records related to their students that appear in schools, and this contradicts the fact that Washington youth have a right to confidential health care,” he said Julia Marks, litigation lawyer. at Legal Voice, another group that challenges the law.

The initiative was supported by Brian Heywood, a conservative mega-donor who said the measure was not designed to give parents veto power over their children’s decision to access medical advice or treatment, but merely states that they have the right to know about it.

Heywood said in a statement that “activist judges think they are smarter than legislators who, in turn, think they are smarter than voters.”

The Democratic-led Legislature overwhelmingly approved the measure in March, with progressive lawmakers wanting to keep it off the fall vote and calculating that the courts would likely block it.

Critics said the measure could harm students who come to school clinics seeking access to contraception, referrals to reproductive services, counseling related to their gender identity or sexual orientation, or treatment or support for sexual assault or domestic violence. . In many of these cases, students don’t want their parents to know, they said.

The ACLU of Washington and other groups challenging the measure say it violates the state Constitution, which requires that new laws not revise or repeal old laws without explicitly stating so.

For example, state law guarantees the privacy of medical records for young people allowed to receive care, including abortions, without parental consent. The new law would give parents the right to be notified before their children receive care and the ability to review school medical records, plaintiffs in the lawsuit said, but does not specifically say it changes existing privacy law.