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Colorado lawmakers reintroduce ‘Parent’s Bill of Rights’

Denver City Hall - Patrick Pelster Cropped
Patrick Pelster

DENVER, Colo. (KRDO) -- For the third time in five years, Colorado state legislators have introduced a bill to allow parents more control over their child's education and health, including when their beliefs conflict with state laws.

Most recently introduced in 2016, the 'Parent's Bill of Rights' would allow parents greater control over their child's education, health and religious upbringing. That bill died in the house from a narrow vote along party lines, but has now been reintroduced in 2020.

The 2020 Parent's Bill of Rights HB 20-1144, introduced by Republican state Rep. Rod Pelton, states that any "governmental entity or institution shall not infringe upon the fundamental right of a parent to direct the upbringing, education, and health care of his or her minor child without demonstrating that the compelling government interest [...] cannot be accomplished in a less restrictive manner."

For example, under the proposed bill, parents can have their children "opt out of a comprehensive human sexuality education curriculum," "be exempt from any immunization law of the state," and withdraw their child from any class or activity that questions the parent's "beliefs or practices in sex, morality, or religion."

Opponents of the 2016 bill argued that bill could be interpreted to allow parents to opt their children out of vaccinations, sex education and birth control, according to our news partners at The Denver Post.

Proponents of the bill, including Republican Rep. Patrick Neville of Castle Rock who's one of the 2020 bill's sponsors, told the Denver Post in 2016 that the bill would restore “some of the parental rights eroded by case law over the years.”

To read the proposed bill in full, see here.

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