Learn About Parental Rights in America
There is a growing contest between government and families regarding who should be the primary decision maker for children. The material in this section both offers information and careful research related to the critical issue of parental rights.
Parental Rights Overview Reports
The State of Parental Rights in America 2017
Parental rights are crumbling in America. Even with advances in some areas in recent years, other areas remain a real problem for parents who just want to protect and provide for their children as they think best.
Prior Years:
State of Parental Rights in America 2015
State of Parental Rights in America 2014
Parental Rights, Medical Child Abuse, and Child Protection
Medical Ethics Concerns in Physical Child Abuse Investigations:
A Critical Perspective
From the Executive Summary: "Focusing on the medical ethics duties involved in child abuse allegations that come to the attention of doctors, this Paper first presents five illustrative cases that document in detail how the medical profession interacted with the child protection system to disrupt the family life of children who were ultimately determined not to be victims of child abuse after all...After the detailed presentation of these cases, the Paper reaches several important conclusions."
Bad Medicine: Parents, the State, and the Charge of "Medical Child Abuse"
Eichner begins by describing Medical Child Abuse (MCA) cases: First, a doctor or hospital threatens an MCA diagnosis if parents don’t agree to their prescribed plan of treatment. Then, they call child protection officials, who treat the diagnosis as “demonstrating, or at least highly indicative of, child abuse.” As a result, parents “are fighting in court to retain custody and, in some cases, to avoid termination of parental rights. In a rare but rising number of cases, states prosecute these abuse charges criminally, so that parents must also fight to avoid prison.” And all the parents wanted was help for their sick child! (Eichner 2016, 210-11)
Current Cases
A primary aim of the Parental Rights Foundation is to provide legal defense for families whose rights have been violated. Below are our current cases.
Taken Away: The Georgia 9 Case
The “Georgia 9” case stems from the parental rights abuses experienced by nine Georgia parents and their 14 children during an emergency stop in Mississippi on their way home from a church event in Louisiana. (Of these, 5 parents and 6 children are parties to the suit.) The pastor of the Atlanta-area group fell ill, and while she sought medical care, the families were accused of “child trafficking” by over-zealous case worker Philana Harrell.
History of Parental Rights/Parental Rights Law
Our nation has consistently maintained that parents possess a fundamental right to raise their children as they see fit. Unfortunately, it is a right that no longer enjoys the highest protection of America’s courts since the 2000 Supreme Court decision in Troxel v. Granville.
The Confused Nature of Parental Rights in the Aftermath of Troxel
Be an Informed Parent.
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