Family and Juvenile Law, Co-Sponsored by Children and the Law, Education Law, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues

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This panel examines the politicization of parenthood. Recently, politicians have taken many controversial issues and framed them in terms of “parents’ rights.” States have introduced bills allowing parents to sue school districts for teaching about systemic racism, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Texas law now allows a man that impregnated a person who went on to have an abortion after six weeks of gestation to sue the abortion provider for damages – a “father’s right” that never previously existed. On the other hand, parents authorizing gender-affirming medical care for their transgender children have been accused of child abuse and neglect.