Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) has introduced federal legislation that would stop state child-welfare agencies from removing children from fit parents solely because those parents raise them according to their biological sex or decline to pursue gender-transition treatments for them.
The bill, called the Yaeli Martinez Child Protection Act, would bar state child-welfare systems that receive federal funding from taking children away from otherwise fit parents on that basis alone. It would also prohibit agencies from denying foster or adoptive placements solely because prospective parents intend to raise a child according to the child’s biological sex.
“Raising your son as a boy or your daughter as a girl is fundamental to parenthood, not child abuse,” Miller said in an announcement accompanying the bill.
“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,” Miller added.
The bill is named for Yaeli Martinez, a California teenager who, according to Miller’s office, was separated from her mother amid a dispute over her gender identity. Martinez spent years in California’s child-welfare system before dying by suicide in 2019 at age 19.
What the Bill Would Change
The legislation touches multiple points in the child-welfare process, from how abuse allegations are evaluated to custody rulings and foster or adoptive placement decisions.
Under the measure, a parent’s choice to raise a child according to the child’s biological sex would not, on its own, count as child abuse. Federally funded state child-welfare systems would be barred from removing a child from an otherwise fit parent for that reason alone. The same protection would extend to prospective foster and adoptive families, who could not be turned away solely because they affirm a child’s biological sex.
The bill would amend the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act along with several child-welfare provisions of the Social Security Act. Its protections apply specifically to parents who decline social, medical, or surgical gender-transition interventions for their children.
Miller’s office also says the bill would alter the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act to prevent states from improperly asserting custody in disputes the legislation covers.
Compliance with the new rules would be tied to a state’s federal funding. The bill also includes a private right of action, meaning individuals whose rights under the law are violated could file a lawsuit directly.
