The Washington State Catholic Conference (WSCC) has issued a “no position” position on a referendum to overturn SB 5599 in Washington State. The bill allows the state to harbor runaways, without telling parents where their child is, if the child is seeking an abortion or “gender-affirming care.”
SB 5599:
- Provides that a licensed shelter for runaway or homeless youth does not need to contact the youth’s parents if there is a compelling reason not to, which includes a youth seeking protected health services.
- Allows host homes to house youth without parental permission if a youth is seeking or receiving protected health care services.
Under the bill, “Protected health care services means gender affirming treatment and reproductive health care services as defined in statute. Gendering affirming treatment means a service or product that a health care provider, prescribes to an individual to support and affirm the individual’s gender identity. Gender affirming treatment includes, but is not limited to, treatment for gender dysphoria. Gender affirming treatment can be prescribed to two-spirit, transgender, nonbinary, and other gender diverse individuals. ‘Reproductive health care services’ means any medical services or treatments, including pharmaceutical and preventive care service or treatments, directly involved in the reproductive system and its processes, functions, and organs involved in reproduction, in all stages of life. Reproductive health care services does not include infertility treatment.”
Referendum 101 is a voter-initiated referendum to overturn SB 5599.
WSCC sent the below letter which explicitly states that the organization is taking “no position” on the referendum and will not allow signatures to be collected at any parishes.
The weak reasoning they claim in the letter, signed by the organization’s Executive Director, Mario Villanueva, is that the referendum is “too far behind in collecting signatures and obtaining the needed funding for a successful effort.”
And so they should make it even harder for that to happen?
While Villanueva says the WSCC “supports individual parishioners signing the petition,” they say that because it’s “unlikely to be successful, we are not actively encouraging parishes to take action on this referendum.”
Villanueva does not explain why he assumes R-101 proponents will fail to collect enough signatures by the July 15 deadline, though 200,000 is a heavy lift for any organization. It’s made harder by transgender activists and Antifa extremists who have sought to stop people from signing the petition.
The uphill battle for signatures is precisely why the WSCC should encourage signature gathering at parishes: to make the goal more attainable.
The post Washington State Catholic Conference Signals “No Position” on Referendum to Overturn Bill Supporting Minors Seeking Abortions and “Gender Affirming Care” Without Parental Consent appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
