(The Center Square) – Washington State Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, is standing by comments he made last week to a Fox News reporter about 13-year-old children making their own health care decisions without parents’ knowledge or consent.
Pedersen’s comments went viral, drawing millions of views and reposts on social media. Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency under President Donald Trump, even got involved in a social media exchange over the quote.
“Kids over 13 have the complete right to make their own decisions about their mental health care,” Pedersen said during a Feb. 5 television interview. “Parents don’t have a right to have notice, they don’t have a right to have consent about that.”
He made the comments related to majority party Democrats backing legislation, Senate Bill 5181, that would essentially gut a parents’ bill of rights adopted by lawmakers during the 2024 session following voters’ sending Initiative 2081 to the Legislature.
SB 5181 passed the full Senate last week. It now heads to the House, where Republicans who unanimously oppose it are gearing up for battle.
Pedersen says his comments to Fox News were taken out of context.
“I stand by what I said,” he told The Center Square during a Tuesday media availability event. “What I said was you can’t amend a law in our state without amending the law.”
According to Pedersen, the way the comment was edited made it sound like his own personal opinion when he was simply stating what the law says.
“In that Fox interview, I said we have an existing state law that provides young people over the age of 13 the right to make mental healthcare decisions without the knowledge or consent of their parents,” he said. “Fox News chose to edit my comments and remove the reference and edit my comments by clipping it midsentence.”
Pedersen was referencing a 1985 state law, RCW 71.34.530, allowing adolescents 13 and older to seek outpatient mental health treatment without parental consent. The law also allows adolescents to leave treatment at any time.
He was then pressed to answer if he personally supports children as young as 13 having autonomy over health care decisions without parental knowledge or consent.
“My personal opinion is that that has been decided for more than 40 years by the Democratic process in the state of Washington,” Pedersen replied. “That is the law in Washington.”
He went on to explain that Republicans have repeatedly brought bills trying to change the law to require parental consent for abortion.
“That bill does not enjoy the majority of support in the Legislature,” Pedersen noted.
Pedersen said backers of I-2081 used “sneaky” language to try and get around having to amend state law.
“It’s just laughable,” he added.
Republicans are not convinced.
“The state shouldn’t be involved in this,” Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn, told The Center Square on Tuesday. “The U.S. Supreme Court has decided over and over again that parents have a 14th Amendment right for the total upbringing of their children unless there’s abuse or neglect. Washington state is going in the wrong direction.”
Couture was among several Republican lawmakers whose reposts helped Pedersen’s comments to Fox News blow up on social media.
“Where local media is not covering things or covering things up and aiding and abetting the people in power, social media is filling that gap,” Couture observed.
If SB 5181 does ultimately pass, Couture said he believes more parents will pull their children from public schools in Washington.
“I think if they do pass this bill to gut the parents’ bill of rights, it is the last straw for many parents and for taxpayers who don’t like what they’re investing in,” the legislator said.
Couture went to say, “I’m not going to go quietly into the good night. I’m going to be fighting this until the bitter end, and I’m an optimist, so I believe I can defeat it.”
Republican leadership weighed in during their Tuesday media availability event.
“What Sen. Pedersen said should shock people,” Rep. Chris Corry, R-Yakima, said. “That we even have that level of autonomy for children in our state is insane.”
Sen. Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, said the bill that passed the Senate is divisive.
“It breaks the bond between parents and school districts, and it undermines trust in our public education system,” he said. “This is bad for kids, bad for parents, bad for school districts, and bad for Washington if they pass this.”
Let’s Go Washington, the group behind I-2081, along with the Washington State Republican Party and the Family Policy Institute of Washington, are holding a “Fight for Parents’ Rights” rally at noon on Saturday, Feb. 15, on the north steps of the State Capitol in Olympia.