The Truth Behind Idaho’s Child Protection Act

The Truth Behind Idaho’s Child Protection Act

From the desk of Representative Heather Scott
December 2, 2017

A very troubling event occurred last week in Kootenai County at the Kootenai Medical Center. This event unfortunately, but not surprisingly, has flown under the radar of most North Idaho residents.

Last week a newborn baby was taken by Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (IDHW) from a new mother who has cerebral palsy and requested her baby not be vaccinated. It took eight painful days including a fight in the courts, before the baby was eventually returned to the mother. It will be the family’s choice whether they share the horrific details of this nightmare, but it did challenge me to take the time to read Idaho’s code on Juvenile Proceedings, the Termination of Parent-Child Relationship Statute and the Child Protection Act.

What I found left me very concerned about poorly worded laws and codes currently putting Idaho families at risk from overzealous government bureaucrats.

From the Idaho Child Protective Act:

16-1619(3) At the adjudicatory hearing, parents or guardians with disabilities shall have the right to introduce admissible evidence regarding how use of adaptive equipment or supportive services may enable the parent or guardian to carry out the responsibilities of parenting the child by addressing the reason for the removal of the child.

From the Termination of Parent-Child Relationship Statute:

16-2005(6) If the parent has a disability, as defined in this chapter, the parent shall have the right to provide evidence to the court regarding the manner in which the use of adaptive equipment or supportive services will enable the parent to carry out the responsibilities of parenting the child. Nothing in this section shall be construed to create any new or additional obligation on state or local governments to purchase or provide adaptive equipment or supportive services for parents with disabilities.

According to the definitions section in code, (16-1602) “a “Disability” means, with respect to an individual, any mental or physical impairment which substantially limits one (1) or more major life activity of the individual including, but not limited to, self-care, manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, learning or working, or a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as having such an impairment.”

The Code continues to point out that “Disability shall not include transvestism, transsexualism, pedophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism, other sexual behavior disorders, or substance use disorders, compulsive gambling, kleptomania or pyromania. Sexual preference or orientation is not considered an impairment or disability. Whether impairment substantially limits a major life activity shall be determined without consideration of the effect of corrective or mitigating measures used to reduce the effects of the impairment.”

So let me get this straight. If a parent cannot hear or uses a wheelchair because they cannot walk, the determination of whether the impairment limits a major life activity, SHALL be determined WITHOUT consideration of the effect or mitigating measures used to reduce the effects of the impairments.

And what the heck does “being regarded as having such impairment” mean? If some bureaucrat “regards” you, a parent, as have a “learning or working disability” then that seems to be is all it could take to remove your kids from your family!

It is a complete travesty of justice, degradation of traditional American family values and utter lunacy to propose, let alone enact, legislation that permits parents with sexual behavior disorders to be blatantly exempted from such law while penalizing parents with physical disabilities. My guess is many wounded veterans, just by the physical nature of their injuries, would fall unwillingly into the IDHW’s catchall term for suspect parents.

I believe this is absurd! And I hope you agree. This legislation needs to be overhauled and my hope is that citizens will get involved to pressure their elected officials to make this a priority to replace in the coming 2018 session. Please consider getting involved with groups such as Health Freedom Idaho who fight issues such as this. We all need to support legislation to fix this and other issues and drain the Idaho Bureaucratic swamp of which IDHW just go added to! Call your legislators and convince them to support a change in this legislation. Find out more at www.HealthFreedomIdaho.org

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