Missouri moving to protect parental rights from federal tyranny over medicine, education and discipline of children

Missouri moving to protect parental rights from federal tyranny over medicine, education and discipline of children


(NaturalNews) A number of Missouri lawmakers are supporting an amendment
to the state constitution that essentially formalizes the fundamental
right of parents to raise their children as they see fit.

In late
April the House gave its approval to a measure, House Joint Resolution
26 (HJR26) that says parents have the right to make all decisions
regarding the "discipline, education, religious instruction, health,
medical care, place of habitation, and general well-being" for their own
minor children.

Laying out the law - parents over the state

The measure says, in part:

Section
35. 1. That parents have a fundamental right to exercise exclusive
control over the care, custody, and upbringing of their minor children,
including all decisions involving the discipline, education, religious
instruction, health, medical care, place of habitation, and general
well-being of such minor children.

2. Parents have the right to
choose to educate their children in public schools, private schools, or
in-home education to prepare them for future obligations in life.

3.
Neither the state nor any political subdivision, nor any agency,
entity, or person acting on behalf of the state or any political
subdivision, shall act to deny or impair the fundamental right of
parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children.
However, the fundamental right of a parent to control and direct the
care, custody, and upbringing of a minor child may be modified by a
court of law when a parent has been found guilty of or pleads guilty to a
crime of violence against a child,
abuse of a child, kidnaping of a child, abandonment of a child, sexual
abuse of a child, sexual conduct or any other sexual offense against a
child, criminal nonsupport, or endangering the welfare of a child; or
when a parent has been found by a court of law by clear and convincing
evidence to have committed child abuse, child neglect or medical
neglect; or as a result of adoption, child abandonment, mental
incompetency or marital dissolution proceedings, or through the
voluntary consent of the parent of a child.

The amendment would not prohibit law enforcement agencies or courts to move to protect at-risk children.

Enshrining a basic right

State
Rep. Todd Richardson, a Poplar Bluff Republican, said the amendment was
prompted in part by a desire to protect the rights of parents who
home-school their children.

In
March, Rep. Kurt Bahr, R-O'Fallon, introduced legislation that would
essentially accomplish what Richardson's amendment would.

"HB 513 would put into statute that the state, or state agencies, cannot violate those parental rights without due process," Bahr said in a statement.

"We
must make sure children are protected in emergency situations but
balance that with serious action of the state," he added. "To formally
terminate parental rights
of a child is only eclipsed as the most extreme measure civil
government can wield, with the imposition of the death penalty being the
only other more extreme measure."

'God-given'

A second
House vote will be needed to send Richardson's legislation to the
Senate. If it passes there, the proposed amendment would be sent to the
voters in 2014.

If the presumption of Richardson's amendment
seems apparent - that parents should have the final say in raising their
own children, barring committing criminals acts against them, parental
rights have actually been under attack for years, and often over the
issue of home schooling.

"Parental rights are under siege.
Parents, in many ways, are becoming 'second class citizens' as lower
courts elevate the power of the state to supersede the wisdom of
parents," says a 2004 issue analysis by the Home School Legal Defense Association.
"Parental choice is in jeopardy. Freedom is at stake. The basic
fundamental freedom of parents to raise their children hangs in the
balance. Have we forgotten whose children they are anyway? They are a
God-given responsibility to parents."

Source:-
http://www.naturalnews.com/040181_parental_rights_homeschooling_government_tyranny.html