Rep. Mary Miller Takes Action to Protect Families from Radical Gender Policies

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congresswoman Mary Miller (IL-15) introduced the Yaeli Martinez Child Protection Act to protect parents from being punished by state child-welfare systems for affirming their child’s biological sex or shielding them from irreversible medical procedures.

“Raising your son as a boy or your daughter as a girl is fundamental to parenthood, not child abuse,” said Congresswoman Mary Miller. “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.”

The legislation is named in honor of Yaeli Martinez, a California teenager who was separated from her mother amid a dispute over her gender identity and spent years in the state’s child-welfare system before dying by suicide at age 19 in 2019.

The Yaeli Martinez Child Protection Act would:

• Protect parents from wrongful abuse allegations by clarifying that affirming a child’s biological sex does not constitute child abuse.
• Safeguard parental custody by barring federally funded state child-welfare systems from removing children from fit parents simply because those parents affirm their child’s biological sex.
• Ensure foster and adoptive families cannot be denied placement solely because they affirm a child’s biological sex.
• Amend the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act to prevent states from wrongfully asserting custody over a child.
• Hold states accountable through federal funding consequences and a private right of action for violations of the Act.

Original Cosponsors: Reps. Josh Brecheen (OK-02), Sheri Biggs (SC-03), Barry Moore (AL-01), Randy Fine (FL-06), John Rose (TN-06), Mark Alford (MO-04), Rich McCormick (GA-07), Robert Aderholt (AL-04), Marlin Stutzman (IN-03), Mark Harris (NC-08), Diana Harshbarger (TN-01), and Erin Houchin (IN-09).

Supporting Organizations: Do No Harm, Concerned Women for America, Child and Parental Rights Campaign, American Principles Project, Moms for America, Changed Movement, Moms for Liberty, Live Action, Our Duty, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Independent Women’s Forum, Kansas Family Voice, Child Welfare and Justice Transformation, Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, Parents United Colorado, Parents Defending Education, The Family Foundation of Virginia, American Association of Christian Schools, CatholicVote, America First Works, The Heritage Foundation, Lifeline Children’s Services, Genspect USA, Women Are Real, Partners for Ethical Care, California Family Council, Californians United for Sex-Based Evidence in Law and Policy, Frederick Douglass Foundation of California, and Awake Illinois.

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