NOTES BETWEEN PRINTED EDITIONS

Better Without Becca

by Vanessa Pompei-Britt
Wellesley, Mass.
SPECIAL TO THE BROADSIDE

Senator Rebecca Rausch had a guaranteed seat in the General Court, until Dashe Videira stepped in. Fed up with Becca’s persistent attacks on parental rights, Dashe determined she couldn’t let Becca run unopposed. Dashe’s name on the ballot in November offers voters a much-needed alternative.

Becca has an established record of indifference to constituent concerns that her bills infringe on parental rights. Despite strenuous opposition, Becca has repeatedly introduced bills that would shift consent rights from parents to their minor children when it comes to certain medical decisions. Parents justifiably object to these measures, which would allow their minor children to consent to sterilization, abortion and other preventative medical care without their knowledge or consent and without any requirement that the child has the intellectual capacity to provide informed consent. Worse yet, records of this care would be concealed from parents.

These bills, S.1458 and S.1114, specify no minimum age for consent, a fact Becca repeatedly denies. Under her bills, a child of any age could tell a nurse that a classmate has COVID or flu and that would be enough for the nurse to deem the child able to consent to a COVID-19 or flu vaccine, even if the child had already recently received that vaccine.

Her bill also deletes the law that requires either the consent of one parent or a judicial order for a minor under 16 to consent to abortion. Even if you support abortion, wouldn’t you want to know if your young daughter has one or is thinking about having one?

In general, parents have the authority to provide informed consent for their minor children. The law recognizes that children are ill-equipped to make these important decisions for themselves. It is well-known that a child’s brain is not fully developed until adulthood and the proponents of the “Raise the Age” legislation, including Becca, are well aware of this fact. Why, then, would we allow minors to make decisions about their bodies that could have permanent and perhaps serious adverse consequences? Clearly, we should not.

Becca didn’t stop there. She introduced another bill that would make it impossible to charge certain defendants with statutory rape if the victim is 13. By deeming 13-year-olds capable of providing consent to sex under certain circumstances, this bill would also make it more difficult to prosecute cases of sexual assault, which could lead to injustice.

Existing laws respect parental rights and protect minors from their own poor judgment and from manipulation and coercion. Expanding minor consent laws is not what parents and children in Massachusetts want or need. If Becca believes differently, she should have been willing to publicly defend her positions in a debate, but she refused to debate Dashe. Her debate dodging is not only dismissive, but hypocritical, as Becca criticized her 2018 opponent, then-incumbent Richard Ross, for doing precisely the same thing.

Government officials need to turn their attention to the real problems facing children in Massachusetts: poor academic performance and poor mental and physical health. More than half of fourth graders in the state cannot read proficiently. MCAS scores in 2023 remain below 2019 levels. In 2024, 22% of students in Milford and more than 10% of students in Needham, Franklin, Plainville and Wrentham were chronically absent.

In 2021, 14.5% of Massachusetts highschoolers reported that they seriously considered suicide. According to a 2022 survey, among 3-17-year-olds in Massachusetts, 4.7% have an autism diagnosis (i.e., 1 in 22 children), 10.3% have a learning disability, 12.4% have anxiety problems, and 30% have mental, emotional, developmental or behavioral problems.

These statistics show that parents, children and schools in Massachusetts are confronting major challenges. Children need their parents to help them navigate these challenges. Government should focus on offering a public education that provides all children with a strong academic foundation and skills they need to succeed in life. No one needs Senator Rausch wasting time devising ways to broaden children’s consent rights when they cannot even read.

Dashe Videira understands this. She understands that the proper place of government is not between a parent and her child. We can do better in Massachusetts, once we move Becca out of the way.