#votefordashe

Senator Rausch has introduced multiple bills that remove parental rights and shift broad consent rights to minors. Through these bills, Senator Rausch wants to:

• Allow minors to consent to preventative medical care, sterilization and abortion, and
• Deem 13-year-old victims of rape and sexual assault as capable of consenting to the sexual activity in certain circumstances, making it more difficult to prosecute these cases. 

Preventative Medical Care

Over the past three legislative sessions, Senator Rausch has repeatedly introduced legislation that would allow minors to consent to preventative medical care without the parent’s knowledge or consent. 

• There would be no minimum age requirement to allow the minor to consent and no requirement that the minor have the intellectual capacity to provide informed consent.
• Records of the care would be concealed from parents.

In the current legislative session, this provision is included in S.1458,  H.2151,  S.1114.

Sterilization and Abortion

Senator Rausch also introduced legislation this year that would allow minors to consent to sterilization and abortion without the parent’s knowledge or consent. 

• Like the preventative medical care bill, there would be no minimum age required to allow the minor to consent and no requirement that the minor has the intellectual capacity to provide informed consent. 

• Records of this care would be concealed from parents. 

• This provision is included in S.1114.

This concerted effort to change the law to exclude parents from their children’s medical decisions, which may have permanent consequences and serious side effects, is contrary to what parents want, children need and doctors depend on. 

• Parents have a fundamental right and responsibility to provide informed consent to their children’s medical care and make decisions that are in the child’s best interest.

• Children, due to their cognitive immaturity, need their parents to protect them from their own rash decisions. 

• Doctors depend on parents to provide critical information about the child’s medical history, which informs the medical advice and care given.  Frequently, children are incapable of providing this information. 

Dashe believes parental involvement is essential to the medical care and upbringing of children.  As your State Senator, Dashe will oppose measures that attempt to diminish parental rights and will insist on the preservation of fundamental parental rights.

Consent to Sex at 13

Senator Rausch introduced legislation this year that would deem 13-year-olds as capable of consenting to sexual conduct if the defendant is not older than 15.

• This bill would create an exception to statutory rape if the victim was 13 and the defendant was not older than 15.  In such a case, the defendant could not be charged with statutory rape.

• The defendant would be charged instead with sexual assault and the 13-year-old victim would have to prove non-consent.

• This measure was introduced in S.1110.

• Current law protects vulnerable 13-year-olds because it provides that sexual intercourse with a child under 16 is automatically statutory rape, even if the defendant is also under 16. Current law also deems 13-year-olds as incapable of providing consent to sexual activity, so they do not have to prove they did not consent during trial.

• Requiring 13-year-old victims to prove they did not consent to sexual activity, as Senator Rausch intends, imposes a substantial legal burden on these victims.  It would likely to lead to drawn-out legal battles that are emotionally and mentally taxing on the teen.  Proving non-consent can be very difficult, especially if the teen lacks the emotional, intellectual or legal resources necessary to prove non-consent, which could lead to injustice.  It would most harm young teens who are more vulnerable to peer pressure, coercion or manipulation. 

Dashe Videira opposes Senator Rausch’s proposed changes to these criminal laws and believes our statutory rape and sexual assault laws should continue to protect these young victims.