Brandi Kruse
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Guest editorial: How Washington’s mental health laws strip parents of their rights
Couture: "Washington State Sen. Jamie Pedersen claimed that parents have had no right to consent or even be notified about their child’s mental health services since 1985. This claim is deliberately misleading."
February 10, 2025
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Late last week, Washington State Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pederson (D-Seattle) made bone-chilling claims during a now viral FOX News interview.

“Kids over 13 have the complete right to make their own decisions about their mental health care. Parents don’t have a right to have notice. They don’t have a right to have consent about that,” he said.

The comments came amid Democratic efforts, led by Sen. Pedersen, to roll back Washington’s parental bill of rights, which was passed into law in 2024 after a successful voter initiative.  

Republican State Representative Travis Couture, an opponent of Democratic efforts to undo I-2081, took to X to explain how Pedersen is mischaracterizing state law to gaslight voters and escape widespread blowback.

His comments are reposted here with permission and edited for length.

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Guest editorial | Rep. Travis Couture (R-Allyn)

Washington State Senator Jamie Pedersen claimed that parents have had no right to consent or even be notified about their child’s mental health services since 1985. He suggested that the uproar over parental rights today is misplaced – that nothing has changed in forty years.

This claim is deliberately misleading.

While it is true that state law has allowed minors 13 and older to access mental health counseling without parental consent since 1985 (RCW 71.34.530), the definition of “mental health care” has changed radically. What once meant talk therapy and substance abuse counseling has now expanded to include gender-affirming medical treatments, psychiatric medications, and reproductive services – all without parental involvement. This is not a minor technicality. It is a fundamental shift in how Washington treats parental rights, and it is exactly why parents are fighting back.

In 1985, when Washington first allowed minors to access mental health care independently, the law was narrowly focused on traditional mental health services. A 13-year-old struggling with depression or anxiety could seek therapy without needing parental approval. This was based on the belief that some children might be in unsafe home situations where parental consent was a barrier to necessary care. However, the system still recognized parents’ role in their child’s life, and there were appropriate limits built into law. For example, parents could still access medical records unless a provider determined it would harm the child. The law was intended to ensure access to counseling, not irreversible medical interventions.

Fast forward to 2021, and Washington Democrats radically expanded what qualifies as mental health care. Under SB 5313 and other recent laws (SB 5599), minors 13 and older can now obtain gender-affirming treatments, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, without parental knowledge or consent. The state also barred insurance companies from informing parents when their child receives these treatments, psychiatric medications, or reproductive health services. This is not the same law from 1985 – this is an intentional effort to erase parental involvement in some of the most consequential medical decisions a child can make.

SB 5313 ensures that gender-affirming treatments are classified as medically necessary care, preventing insurers from denying coverage for these procedures. While the bill itself does not explicitly grant minors the right to consent to these treatments, Washington law, as previously noted, already allows minors 13 and older to make their own mental health care decisions. By redefining gender-affirming care as a form of mental health treatment, SB 5313 reinforces the idea that these interventions can be accessed under existing minor consent laws – effectively cutting parents out of the process.

SB 5599 takes this a step further by allowing licensed shelters and host homes to conceal the location of runaway minors from their parents if the child is seeking gender-affirming care or reproductive services. Before, shelters would notify parents within 24-72 hours of taking in a runaway, but under this law they are exempt from that requirement if the child claims they are fleeing for gender-affirming or reproductive care. This means that not only can a minor consent to medical interventions without parental involvement, but the state is now actively facilitating the separation of children from their parents in cases where the parents might disagree with or even be unaware of their child’s medical decisions.

When combined, SB 5313 and SB 5599 create a dangerous framework: minors can seek gender-related medical interventions under the broad umbrella of mental health care, and if their parents oppose or even question these treatments, the state can step in to protect the child from parental interference.

By pretending nothing has changed in four decades, Democrats are gaslighting parents who have had their rights systematically stripped away. The senator’s argument ignores the magnitude of these policy shifts. Parents were once simply excluded from routine therapy sessions; now they are locked out of decisions that can permanently alter their child’s body and mind. A 13-year-old in Washington cannot get a tattoo, smoke a cigarette, or take an aspirin at school without parental consent – but that same child can begin a regimen of puberty blockers or hormones without their parents ever knowing.

This radical redefinition of mental health care does not protect children – it exposes them to harm. Parents are their child’s most important advocates, the ones who know them best, and the ones responsible for their well-being. Stripping them of their role in medical decision-making is not progressive – it is reckless. The idea that these changes are just a continuation of a forty-year-old policy is a blatant lie meant to silence criticism and obscure the real issue. Washington’s laws have not stayed the same – they have transformed, and in doing so, they have pushed parents out of the picture entirely.

Parents are not upset because they suddenly decided to care about a law passed in 1985. They are upset because the government has moved the goalposts, expanding the definition of mental health care in ways that go far beyond what was ever intended. The fight for parental rights in Washington is not about rolling back access to therapy – it is about stopping the state from making life-altering medical decisions for children behind their parents’ backs. Washington Democrats can try to rewrite history, but parents know the truth.

Renewed efforts by Democrats in Olympia to erase voter-backed parental rights couldn’t come at a more perplexing time. Despite spending more money on public education per pupil than ever before, recent National Report Card scores show Washington state with the worst academic outcomes in math and reading in three decades. Despite spending untold millions to bolster mental health in schools, Healthy Youth Survey results show kids in public schools feel more hopeless and less safe.

Parents are a child's first teacher and are the primary stakeholders in the upbringing and safety of their kids. Washington parents do not co-parent with the government, and the state does not own our kids. It is time Democrats in Olympia cease promoting policies that keep secrets from parents about their kids – and stop passing radical laws that irreversibly harm children while keeping parents in the dark.

 

 

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My full remarks to President Donald Trump
Disrupting violent extremism in all forms should be a nonpartisan pursuit.
 

 

 

I was honored this week to join President Donald Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and other independent content creators for a roundtable on Antifa.

While a certain joke about TDS is getting a lot of attention, the underlying mission of the meeting was serious – deadly serious.

For years, organized left-wing radicals have sought to influence public policy through coercion: using harassment, threats, vandalism, and violence as their tools. From the Occupy movement, to the May Day riots, to the "Summer of Love" and up to the most recent anti-ICE actions, I've followed these activities closely – and been the target of their tactics far too many times.

Whether you call them Antifa, terrorists, radicals, or just criminals – understanding, investigating, and disrupting violent extremism in all forms should be a nonpartisan pursuit.

Here are my full remarks to President Donald Trump:

Mr. President, you’re going to hear us be very fired up today, as you can tell. It’s because some of us have been covering Antifa for 15 years and have never had anyone in a position of authority even acknowledge their existence.

The single most powerful thing you’ve done to deal with this scourge has been acknowledging that Antifa is a real thing. I genuinely believe there would be people at these tables who would be dead today and would have been killed in Portland had you not called them a terror organization and said you're going to bring the full weight of the federal government to bear.

I talked to Katie Daviscourt in Portland the other day. She’d been assaulted all summer. And she said the same thing. They didn’t seem as quick to violence as soon as you made that designation. They’re worried. There’s been two dozen or so arrested in Portland. They don’t want to go to federal prison.

There’s this video of one of them who was in the face of an ICE agent and then he’s in custody shaking. Once you take the mask off, they’re nothing.

I was told by probably a dozen people not to tell you this. I’m going to tell you anyway because it’s relevant to what we’re talking about. I’m living proof that you can recover from TDS. I had strong Trump Derangement Syndrome for probably eight years. This is one of the reasons I recovered from it.

By the way, it’s much better to not have TDS. I’m happier. I’m healthier. I'm more successful. I even think I got a little more attractive after I got rid of my TDS.

I’m a reporter in Seattle and frankly, I could not care any less what any of you have to say about this meeting (looks to Press Corps). I could not care any less. We’re not here for you. I’m not here to convince any of you that Antifa is a real thing. Because if you have not come to that conclusion by now, you are never going to come to that conclusion because you don’t want to see it. And you’re going to say it’s a bunch of right-wing conservative influencers who are here spinning a tale.

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When I saw after all those years that the media wouldn’t be honest about what was happening, that Democratic politicians wouldn’t be honest about what was happening, I thought, well, if they’re not being honest about that, maybe they’re not being honest about President Trump either. It opened my mind to just looking at things for what they were. And now I find you quite funny, actually (looks to President Trump).

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Hopefully, in three and a half years, they will be a shell of their former selves.

President Trump:

Well I think we're very close, and it’s Antifa and many others. Unfortunately, there are many others, bad ones. Most have been named terrorist organizations. There a couple that we’re going to focus on, but I think we’ve got it pretty well covered, but there are many others. Specifically today is Antifa and it’s really bad and we’re going to get it cleaned up.

Thank you very much. I’m glad you no longer have TDS. I feel very good about that. Thank you.

 

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