Parental Rights Amendment in Texas House Committee

On April 19, the Texas Senate passed Senate Joint Resolution 70 proposing an amendment to enshrine parental rights in the Texas Constitution. The bill is currently awaiting a hearing and vote in the State Affairs Committee of the Texas House of Representatives.

If passed by the House and adopted by the Texas voters in the November 7 elections, SJRes 70 will add language to the Texas Constitution assuring that “[a] parent has the inherent right to exercise care, custody, and control of the parent’s child and to make decisions for the upbringing of the parent’s child, including but not limited to decisions regarding the education, moral and religious training, and health care of the child.”

This excellent provision would secure in the Texas Constitution the fundamental rights of parents already upheld by the US Supreme Court for the last 100 years, but recently threatened through overreach by government actors in many areas, including schools, courts, and “child protective services.”

(The provision will not end the government’s appropriate role in protecting children from abuse or neglect. While a super majority of states already recognize such parental rights in their courts, law enforcement and public schools continue to do their jobs to provide for children.)

However, for this measure to reach the voters in November, it must be adopted by the House this month, and that means the House State Affairs Committee needs to take up and support this bill.

We salute the Texas Home School Coalition (THSC) and Texas Family Freedom Project for leading the way on this resolution, and today we urge you to join us in supporting their effort by reaching out to your lawmakers.

Please take a moment today to contact your member of the Texas House and urge him or her to vote in favor of SJRes 70 when it comes before them. Then, reach out to the members of the State Affairs Committee as well and urge them to hear and pass this bill.

Your message should be in your own words, but can be as simple as the following:

I would urge you to support SJRes. 70, the Parental Rights Amendment, with a favorable vote (in the State Affairs Committee). This amendment will preserve for generations to come the standard of protection for families that is currently upheld in our courts, but that has come under increasing attack from overbearing state actors. Now is the time to preserve these rights, before they are eroded and taken away. Please call for a hearing on this measure and vote in favor when it comes before you. Thank you.

Then, please forward this email to 2 or 3 other friends or family members in Texas and ask them to join you by urging their representatives to act on this important resolution.

Thank you for standing with us to protect children by empowering parents in the Lone Star State!