Sen. Bonham: Protect kids from pedophiles, sex traffickers

By Oregon State Senator Dan Bonham,

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, making the concept of keeping children safe top of mind. I want to share my deep concerns about HB 2002, the most extreme abortion and gender-altering bill in our country right now. Watch my remonstrance here.

HB 2002 has the government taking the place of parents by removing the age of consent requirements for “reproductive health care,” which includes abortion, transgender surgeries, and hormone replacement drugs. It creates secrecy between parents and children when there should be none.

As we know, the human brain is not fully developed until around 25 years old. Children do not have the neurological capacity to make these lifelong decisions and need their guardians’ advice and input. In fact, with this bill, children will need more parental oversight to join a t-ball league than to have irreversible procedures done.

As soon as the government steps in, insidious opportunities for pedophiles, sex traffickers, and kidnappers crop up.

In Eugene, an educator asked students to complete a sexual writing assignment. And we know certain educators will socially transition a child without alerting their guardians at home as the topics about the “gender spectrum” are taught to kindergarteners.

The President of the United States recently stated, “There’s no such thing as someone else’s child… Our nation’s children are all our children.” I vehemently disagree with that statement.

Parents are financially, legally, and morally responsible for their children. This should be an inalienable understanding about the relationship between parent and child. I find it extraordinarily disturbing that the majority party seeks to protect their activist agenda at the expense of children’s lives.

The government is not a parent; it never has been and never will be.