This in response to Michelle Yenderrozos’s letter to the editor in the July 26 Reflector regarding repealing SB 5599. Buried in the middle of Ms. Yenderrozos’s letter is a simple statement that is the only reason many of us are hoping to repeal this law. Before SB 5599, when a runaway minor entered a shelter, the shelter was required to inform the parents of the child’s mental and physical state, their location and how they got there unless there was evidence of abuse. SB 5599 added to the abuse exemption that parents are not to be informed if the child is seeking “protected healthcare services.” Ms. Yenderrozos doesn’t mention that those “services” include abortion or gender transitioning. So, a teenage girl can run away from home, enter a shelter and have an abortion without informing the parents or be given a series of chemical hormones that may cause irreversible changes to her body. Seriously? When my kids were in public school they couldn’t be given aspirin without my consent. Hopefully we can get this repeal on the ballot this fall, overturn SB 5599 and return the responsibility for medical care of children to their parents.
John Roscoe
Battle Ground
