A Nevada state legislature bill is seeking to remove the terms "mother" and "father" on a child's birth certificate and instead name an endless number of adults as the child's parents. The Assembly Bill 115 was presented by Assembly persons Rochelle Nguyen, Sarah Peters, Cecelia González, Selena Torres, and Howard Watts.
Assembly Bill 115 aims to revise "provisions relating to domestic relations" and seeks to "[authorize] a court to determine that more than two people have a parent and child relationship with a child. According to Press California, the Nevada Family Alliance, a program of the Capitol Resource Institute, condemned the bill, saying it "could bring complicated and dangerous implications for parents across Nevada."
According to WND, the controversial Assembly Bill 115 was heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee this week and passed in the Assembly, where it was sponsored by Democratic Assemblywoman González. Pacific Justice Institute, a legal defense organization that specializes in the defense of religious freedom and parental rights, submitted a testimony disavowing the bill's intention of allowing unlimited number of parents on a child's birth certificate.
In the testimony, they claimed the bill will "radically re-define the parent-child relationship to ask the courts to allow a group of adults (three or more) to have a legally recognized parent-child relationship."
"This expanded definition is not in the best interest of the child," the Sacramento-based institute argued. "The Bill offers no functional framework in which a court is to apply this expanded definition."
The bill was introduced in a timely fashion, with April being National Child Abuse Prevention Month. The Nevada Independent reported that according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there are about 686,000 children who fall victim to abuse and neglect every year. The bill seeking to replace the mother and father figure with an unlimited number of parents in a child's birth certificate can lead to an increased number of child abuse cases in the U.S. if not nipped in the bud.
By placing an unlimited number of parents on a child's birth certificate, the Nevada government is increasing the rate at which children may be exposed to child abuse from "parents" who are listed on the certificate but are not biologically related to them.
In Nevada, Churchill County alone recorded 332 cases of child abuse in 2020, a decrease from 400 more cases reported in 2018, according to Nevada Appeal.
Mayor Ken Tedford, who is a strong advocate for child abuse prevention, was at a small event in the county earlier this month to read share the joint proclamation of the city and county that committed itself to "effective child abuse prevention strategies," which they said "succeed because of partnerships created among citizens, human services agencies, schools, faith communities, health care providers, civic organization, law enforcement agencies and the business community."
Unfortunately, the Assembly Bill 115 appears to be doing just the opposite.
