On the Brink of a Game Changer for Parental Rights

UPDATE FROM:

-- June 24, 2015

On the Brink of a Game Changer for Parental Rights

The delay of our Summer Power Sweep has yielded its first dividend, and though I still must remain vague on the details I can report that we have secured our first commitment from a Democrat to cosponsor the Parental Rights Amendment (PRA) in the U.S. House! This is one small piece in a larger puzzle, but it is a positive step toward a real game changer in our parental rights effort.

Those who have been with us for a while will recall that although parental rights efforts at the state level have consistently been bipartisan, Congress has been a different story. At one point we had 141 cosponsors in the House, of which 140 were Republicans. In Washington’s “party-first” atmosphere that was 140 reasons for Democrats to say, “No, thank you,” without even considering the language we proposed.

For those who have been wondering, this has been the reason for delaying our Summer Power Sweep – to make sure the PRA starts out on bipartisan footing this time around. And we are now a major step closer to that goal.

But that’s not all. We are seeing other in-roads as well.

Last week, David Miranda and I attended the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Columbus, Ohio, where we had opportunity to talk with hundreds of pastors and leaders of other organizations. As a result of our week, ParentalRights.org will soon be sitting down with the public policy arm of the nation’s largest protestant denomination, as well. And the potential of even one of these pastors to influence an entire community for our cause cannot be measured or guessed.

In short, any one of the hundreds we talked to could turn out to be yet another game changer in our favor.

David and I then finished our week at the Mitochondrial Disease Conference in Herndon, Virginia, where we met dozens of families affected by this misunderstood disease. A majority of these parents will be accused of medical abuse or neglect at some point in their child’s medical journey. They understand just how vital their parental rights are.

Organizationally, they also have the ear of the bipartisan Mitochondrial Disease Caucus in Congress. That group is currently made up of 7 Republicans and almost twice as many Democrats. Securing the support of some of these on the Parental Rights Amendment, which the Mito community may help us to do, would be another game changer for the PRA.

Action Items

With the Summer Power Sweep still on hold, what can you do to further the cause of parental rights?

As I write this, 69,052 Facebook users are fans of our ParentalRights.org page. We would like to hit just 70,000 as a direct result of this email. So please take a moment if you haven’t already to “like” our page. And if you already have, please share it to a few select friends and ask them to “like” us as well. It may seem like a small thing, but Facebook is a growing platform for us, and one we can use to reach many more Americans with the need to protect their parental rights.

And if you haven’t already, why not download the petition here and see if you can find a few friends to help you fill up a page? Don’t forget to make plans for National Parental Rights Week starting July 20, too, with a goal of at least filling one page (16 signatures) to increase our reach for this vital cause.

This is our best chance to pass the Parental Rights Amendment. Let us work to make the most of it!

Sincerely,

Michael Ramey
Director of Communications & Research

Think about it

Nuff Said, yes?

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