Tell Your Representatives to Protect Children!
One of my goals for IFI has always been to grow our capabilities so that we are strategically helping Hoosier families who are under attack because of their faith. That growth you have provided through your investment in IFI shows it’s value more and more every day.
We met the Cox family a couple of years ago through the IFI 5 Freedoms Project. They were needing help because the government was attempting to remove their son from their home merely because they wouldn’t affirm him as a female. Over the last 2 years, the Director of the Five Freedoms Project, our own Josh Hershberger, has spent an immense amount of time representing the Cox family and trying to reunite them with their son.
Josh is willing to take this fight all the way to the Indiana Supreme Court, and recently it has become clear that this step will be necessary. You can learn more about the Cox family and their story here: https://youtu.be/xBYeklnPhlY
The legal work done to defend parental rights in court has also informed preparation for our legislative work at the Statehouse. We are tracking a number of bills this legislative session, but two stand out above the rest. These bills would protect parents and children within a culture that seemingly has lost its mind.
It is clearer and clearer with each passing year that Parental Rights are under attack, from a culture that is actively devaluing the connections and security provided by strong families. Thankfully, there are two bills that I would like to introduce to you today that aim to shore up the weak spots in the law, and protect the parents and children of Indiana.
Firstly, we need to talk about the Help, Not Harm Bill (HB 1220 and SB 480). This bill has been introduced in the House and the Senate, to give maximum visibility to this critical issue. This bill will protect children from permanent life-altering medical interventions made before they are old enough to understand what they are agreeing to.
In any medical procedure, an important element is informed consent. To have informed consent, a patient must be fully aware of the risks and side-effects of a given medical intervention. Children cannot understand what they are giving away when they sign away their health body parts, their fertility, and their chance at growing out of gender dysphoria naturally without medical intervention.
The medical industry is supposed to police this internally, with strong penalties for doctors who do not get informed consent from their patients, but they have dropped the ball. The Help, Not Harm Bill forces them to pick it back up.
Just as a child cannot consent to a legal contract, a child cannot consent to the serious long-term harm puberty blocking drugs, opposite-sex hormones and/or surgery to remove health body parts will do to them. It saddens me that we need a law like this to remind activists in the medical community that they must “First, do no harm”, but as this issue has become ideological, they have ignored the best interests of the children involved.
Here in Indiana, we saw that, and are moving to fix it with the Help, Not Harm Bill (HB 1220 and SB 480).
Please, take a moment and reach out to your State Representative and State Senator and let them know you want them to vote “Yes” on the Help, Not Harm Bill. If you click here, we have made it easy.
The second bill I’d like to bring to your attention is HB 1407, mentioned in the video above. HB 1407 strengthens parental rights by stating in clear language that parental rights are fundamental and that refusing to affirm your child as anything other than their biological sex is not a reason for the state to remove your child from your care. We firmly believe that the existing law was intended to provide this protection, but courts and the bureaucracy are interpreting the law in a way that ignores parental rights. HB 1407 will add clear and concise language that cannot be misinterpreted or ignored.
The Cox family has lost so much in this struggle against government overreach, but their sacrifice has highlighted a danger that all parents in Indiana need to be aware of. HB 1407 is an incredibly important bill to help solve this problem.
Please, take a moment and reach out to your representatives and let them know you want them to vote Yes on HB 1407. If you click here, we have made it easy.
These two bills are key to protecting the rights of parents, and the innocence of children.
In addition to contacting your legislators we ask that you pray for the Cox family, children who are suffering from Gender Dysphoria, and those children that have already suffered harm to their bodies.