California Legislation Lets Courts Take Custody from Parents of Minors Who Seek ‘Transgender’ Treatments

by Jeff Johnston | September 2, 2022 | Sexuality

The California legislature passed Senate Bill 107, allowing courts to take away parents’ rights if their child comes to the state for what is dishonestly called “gender-affirming health care.”

The bill now goes to the governor’s desk, where it must be signed or vetoed by September 30.

SB 107 allows adults to bring children and teens from other states to California for experimental and damaging transgender medical interventions, without the knowledge or consent of their parents.

Courts could then take “temporary emergency jurisdiction” of these minors with sexual identity confusion and authorize permanent and bodily disfiguring puberty blockers, hormone suppressants, opposite-sex hormones and surgeries for these children – even when their parents oppose it.

SB 107 also prohibits medical providers from releasing information so that criminal or civil actions can be pursued for providing those harmful interventions.

Greg Burt, director of capitol engagement with the California Family Council (CFC) commented on the outrageous legislation which assaults both children and parental rights:

SB 107 declares war on parents throughout the country who don’t want their children disfigured and sterilized. Studies show that more than 80% of gender dysphoria cases resolve themselves after a child reaches adulthood.

The primary sponsor of the legislation was state Senator Scott Weiner. As CFC reported, he was challenged in a hearing “regarding how SB 107 violates the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act, which obligates states to honor child custody judgments of other states.”

He denied the allegation, claiming that “the bill does not involve rejecting judgments or child custody judgments.” (CFC provided a link to the entire hearing, here)

But the Senate Rules Committee analysis states that SB 107:

Provides that the presence of a child in this state for the purpose of obtaining gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care is sufficient to grant a court in this state the jurisdiction to make an initial child custody determination for the child.

A legal analysis from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) explains:

SB 107 violates parental rights protected by the U.S. Constitution by giving California courts the ability to strip parents who reside in another state of their parental rights if their child travels to California to obtain gender transition procedures – including harmful puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and irreversible surgeries. It also denies parents the right to have access to their child’s medical information.

The ADF assessment goes on to explain different scenarios where children and families could be harmed by the bill:

An unfit parent about to lose custody could travel to California with the child, give the child puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones, and in doing so win custody under SB 107, even if the home-state court has already entered judgment on the case.
Parents whose child visits a relative in California could lose custody of their child forever if the relative persuades the child to identify as a different gender during the visit.
Parents of children who never travel to California could be denied medical information about their child if the child obtains puberty blockers from a doctor in California via telemedicine.

The analysis states:

Forbidding parents to have access to their child’s medical information violates their fundamental rights as parents, and it undermines laws written in states across the country that ensure that parents can care for their children with access to their child’s medical records.

ADF concludes that SB 107 breaches federal laws and “is likely unconstitutional for violating fundamental parental rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.”

CFC President Jonathan Keller called SB 107 “one of the gravest threats to parental rights in recent years.”

Keller said if the bill is signed, “California should brace for lawsuits. Other states’ Attorneys General will not sit idly by as California steals children from parents who don’t want them sterilized with these trans-treatments.”

Related articles and resources:

California Family Council:

Daily Citizen:

Focus on the Family:

Photo from Shutterstock.