Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) has introduced legislation aimed at preventing states from removing children from otherwise fit parents because of disagreements over gender identity.
The Yaeli Martinez Child Protection Act would prohibit federally funded state child-welfare agencies from taking a child solely because a parent raises the child according to their biological sex or rejects gender-transition procedures. The bill would also bar agencies from denying foster or adoptive placements solely because prospective parents intend to raise a child in accordance with the child’s biological sex.
“Raising your son as a boy or your daughter as a girl is fundamental to parenthood, not child abuse,” Miller said in a statement announcing the legislation.
“The Yaeli Martinez Child Protection Act defends the constitutional rights of mothers and fathers and stops bureaucrats from using taxpayer-funded child-welfare systems to tear children away from loving families,” she added.
Miller’s office said the legislation honors Yaeli Martinez, a California teenager who was separated from her mother during a dispute involving her gender identity. Martinez remained in the state’s child-welfare system for years before dying by suicide in 2019 at age 19.
The measure would address multiple points in the child-welfare process, including abuse determinations, custody disputes and foster-care or adoption decisions.
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Under the proposal, a parent’s choice to raise a child according to the child’s biological sex could not, standing alone, be treated as child abuse. States that receive federal child-welfare funds would likewise be barred from removing a child from an otherwise fit parent solely for that reason.
The proposed protections would extend to foster and adoptive placements. Child-welfare agencies could not reject a prospective family solely because its members affirm the child’s biological sex.
The bill would amend the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act as well as child-welfare provisions in the Social Security Act. Its protections would cover parents who decline social, medical or surgical gender-transition interventions for their children.
Miller’s announcement also points to proposed changes to the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act. Those revisions are intended to stop states from improperly asserting custody in disputes governed by the legislation.
Compliance would be linked to federal funding, while the bill would also establish a private right of action for violations. Families whose protected rights were allegedly infringed could therefore file lawsuits to challenge conduct prohibited under the measure.