Parental Rights Movement

Re “No Substitute for Listening to Children,” Platform, Sept. 23:

While I agree with Gary Wallach that parents need to listen to their children and not be intimidated (or intimidating) when children ask questions about sex, I disagree on his main point. He says parents all over the country are trying to pass legislation to make their children, whom they can’t control, “be good.” And that this is the reason for the parental rights movement sweeping the country. He is wrong.

The parental rights movement is gaining popularity because they are trying to pass legislation to return parental rights to the family where they belong. The law says an underage teen cannot have her ears pierced without the consent and presence of a parent. Yet this same girl can enter a “women’s health center” and receive an abortion without her parent’s knowledge. In other areas of concern, like discipline, some states have made it a crime for parents to spank their children. Read the U.N. resolution on the rights of the child if you doubt that parental rights are being threatened.

We must wonder who really has the best interest of the child at heart. Is it the child’s personal family unit? Or people like Wallach who stand to lose abortion dollars the day parental consent becomes the law of the land.

KRISTINA A. FERNANDEZ

Santa Ana