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by Dave Soulia, for FYIVT.com
Vermont’s current policies allowing minors to independently access medical care—such as gender-affirming treatment—without parental involvement may seem like a new development. Yet, this is part of a long-standing legislative approach that began in the 1970s, when the Vermont Legislature passed a law permitting minors to seek confidential testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Codified under Vermont Statutes Annotated, Title 18, Section 4226, this law allowed minors of any age to access STI care independently, removing parental consent requirements. Initially focused on controlling public health risks, the scope of minor consent laws has since broadened to encompass mental health and gender-affirming care, sparking fresh debates over family cohesion and parental rights.
Broad Access to Healthcare Services
Today, Vermont minors have broad access to certain healthcare services without parental consent, with both state laws and federal privacy protections supporting this access. The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) grants minors who can legally consent to healthcare the right to control the privacy of their health information. This protection means that parents, even if financially responsible through health insurance, may be kept unaware of their child’s specific treatments, leading to concerns over financial responsibility and a lack of parental involvement in major health decisions.
Proponents argue that these confidentiality protections are essential to ensure adolescents seek necessary care without fear of judgment or repercussions. Short-term studies indicate that confidentiality encourages minors to seek care for sensitive issues. According to a report by the Journal of Adolescent Health, 59% of teens surveyed said they would avoid healthcare if they thought their parents might find out. Similarly, a study published by the American Journal of Public Health found that confidentiality significantly increases teens’ likelihood of seeking care for reproductive health, mental health, and STI services. Dr. Rick Barnett, a clinical psychologist and legislative advocate, explains, “This legislation ensures that young people can seek the help they need without fear of stigma or breach of confidentiality.“
From STI Care to Mental Health and Gender Affirmation
While the original laws focused solely on STIs, their implications have expanded significantly. Minors can now access outpatient mental health services and gender-affirming counseling without parental involvement under guidance issued by the Vermont Agency of Education. Though Vermont has no specific state law mandating parental exclusion for gender-affirming services in schools, guidelines introduced by the Agency of Education in 2017 and updated in 2020 encourage schools to honor a student’s chosen name and pronouns without notifying parents, if the student requests confidentiality. This guidance relies on Title IX—the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools—to protect gender identity as part of a student’s right to privacy. For many parents, these policies create a sense of disconnection from critical aspects of their children’s lives and feel like a profound overreach into family matters.
The expanded minor consent laws and school guidelines also cover medications when necessary for treatment. Under Vermont law, minors seeking STI treatment can receive prescription medications such as antibiotics or antivirals without parental consent or knowledge. This includes drugs to treat bacterial infections (e.g., chlamydia, gonorrhea) and viral infections (e.g., herpes) related to STIs. For lifelong conditions like HIV/AIDS, minors can independently access antiretroviral therapy (ART), and for Hepatitis C, treatment includes direct-acting antiviral medications, which aim to cure the infection. This allows minors to obtain potentially life-saving medication without needing parental involvement.
Partner Notification and Parental Exclusion
Confidentiality in treatment also extends to notifying sexual partners who may have been exposed. Healthcare providers are required to report certain STIs to the Vermont Department of Health, which then initiates a confidential process known as partner notification or contact tracing. Through this process, the Health Department reaches out to sexual partners of an infected individual to inform them of potential exposure, advising them to seek testing and treatment. Importantly, the original patient’s identity remains confidential, ensuring that while the infection’s spread is contained, patient privacy is respected.
Opponents argue that this approach erodes parental authority and the stability of family relationships. Some worry that policies that initially focused on specific public health issues, like STI treatment, have set the stage for a broader trend, allowing minors to make life-altering decisions without the support or guidance of their families. For parents, the idea of being financially responsible for their children’s healthcare without knowing the nature of these services raises significant concerns. Sharon Toburg, a Vermont parent advocate, stated, “While Vermont statutes permit minors to make a limited number of medical decisions without parental involvement, the general rule is that a parent must consent to all medical procedures performed on his or her child due to the legal incapacity of minors.“
A Lack of Long-Term Data
Further complicating this issue is the apparent lack of follow-up data on the long-term effects of these policies. While short-term studies show increased care-seeking behavior among adolescents, there is little data examining whether these policies ultimately benefit young people’s long-term mental health and well-being or whether they may have unintended consequences for family relationships.
In many ways, Vermont’s approach represents a generational shift in values around individual autonomy, especially in healthcare decisions. Schools and healthcare providers feel that federal protections, including those under Title IX, offer a framework for confidentiality policies. Yet, because Title IX’s application to gender identity is still contested in courts, schools that follow Vermont’s guidance to respect a student’s privacy on gender issues without parental disclosure may find themselves exposed to potential legal challenges. This vulnerability highlights a legal gray area where the interpretation of federal and state protections could shift based on future court rulings or policy changes.
Balancing Autonomy and Family Cohesion
The expansion from STI treatment to other sensitive areas of healthcare reflects what some see as a “slippery slope,” whereby each incremental step in minors’ rights expands government oversight in family matters. Critics argue that prioritizing adolescent autonomy in medical decisions without sufficient parental involvement may ultimately weaken family cohesion and erode the role of parents in supporting young people through critical life decisions.
As Vermont navigates this complex territory, the absence of comprehensive, long-term studies remains a significant oversight. The policies were initially designed to address immediate public health needs, yet the broader, lasting effects on both individual well-being and family dynamics remain unclear. Policymakers and communities alike may benefit from establishing more rigorous frameworks for assessing these policies’ impacts and balancing individual autonomy with the foundational role of family support in adolescent development.
By fostering more open, data-driven discussions around these policies, Vermont has the opportunity to explore ways of protecting both adolescent health and family cohesion. A balanced approach that allows families to be partners in young people’s lives while still respecting individual needs could provide a path forward, bridging the values of individual autonomy and family unity.
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Categories: Commentary
So it’s illegal for a child to be groomed by an adult for sexual purposes, when under the age of consent? But, it’s perfectly fine when they are groomed by school staff to make irreversible medical decisions, and body mutilations, without the parents consent or knowledge? And then on top of that, the doctors and nurses also don’t have to say a word, but will joyfully take the insurance handout from the individuals parents policy? And it all started small, just like everything else, give an inch, certain groups, take a mile. I pray people wake up to the reality of the stronghold Satan has on our world, and especially his thirst for our children. It’s never been more clear. Pray for our kids, grandkids, etc. We don’t have a clue what the outcome is from all of these laws, ” medical care”, school and government overreach will be. The blind leading the soon to be blind.
And then there’s Becca who applauds the destruction of children…
Josh, 100% correct.
“Today, we are putting pediatric medical professionals on notice: you cannot sideline parents,” HHS Secretary Kennedy said. “When providers ignore parental consent, violate exemptions to vaccine mandates, or keep parents in the dark about their children’s care, we will act decisively. We will use every tool at our disposal to protect families and restore accountability.”
In regard to vaccines: “But here’s the twist: those county-administered vaccines are federally funded, which means they’re subject to federal rules. And those rules require schools to honor exemptions. That’s the lever Kennedy is now yanking, hard.”
In his clip, he twice directed parents to HHS’s revamped reporting page— effectively a national tip line for bureaucrats who can’t keep their needles to themselves: (HHS.gov/ocr/complaints.) “We will use every tool we have to protect parents and families,” Secretary Kennedy said. “Parents know their children best; parents love their children most,” he added.
Parents; you have an ally in HHS. File complaints. Bring in the Feds.
All the quotes and info are from lawyer, super writer and freedom fighter Jeff Childers, in today’s Coffee and Covid. (The link is too long and cumbersome to post, but it’s easy to find, even for me.)
And today’s edition also covers the Paxil nightmare, and how more than half of medical “studies” are false, and why. It’s fascinating and frightening, but such good armor when VT officials tell you to shut up, go away, and “Trust the $cience.”
Parents dictate minor’s choices and decisions. Period. NOT government. NOT schools. But NOT to Communists however, and Communists are what we have in VT.
What about the US Supreme Court decisions that have affirmed that the state interfering in parental rights is unconstitutional? In one Meyer vs. Nebraska, the court ruled that parents, not the government, maintain ultimate “child-rearing” authority. And there have historically been others. The problem is that states, like now insane VT, keep challenging these broader cases by essentially claiming that gender identity/LGBTQplusplusplus don’t apply under these specific circumstances – and these states move forward in then legislating policies that they obviously, at least to the sane population, have absolutely no business in doing. Further, when the Supreme Justices refuse to hear these type cases for various reasons, the state continues onward with perverse progress perceiving and possessing immunity.
Meanwhile, children are being irreversibly harmed and their lives irreversibly ruined. No physician, surgeon, scientist, or school administrator has the ability alter any individual’s sex. Yet the utter insanity of this era beckons the mentally ill and those bent upon evil equally, and the battle between good & evil persists. Especially in places such as Vermont.
The left wants it both ways. Minor children can make their own decisions about gender expression and “transformations” and in terminating a pregnancy, without parental permission or even notification, yet someone can’t buy a handgun under the age of 21 and if they used one to commit a crime, they will be excused by our legal system because “their brains are still developing”…liberal logic.
Not to mention the push to have 16 year olds vote
Headline fixed:
What parents need to know about Vermont’s minor-approved abduction laws
Schools are allowed to have two sets of records for each student. The parents can see one set of record, but not the other. This record has information that the student does not want their parents to know. Students are encouraged to be deceitful to their parents. This is not right. Students are allowed to pick their own personal pronouns. This is nothing but foolishness. They can pick their own gender and that can be gender fluid. Why aren’t teachers complaining about these new policies? Our children are not safe in our public schools.
The few teachers who have concerns about these issues cower in fear over bringing them into the light of day. They will have no public backing from other teachers, the school administration or their rotten union if they promote the legitimate interests for traditional safety concerns and intellectual development of the children. Most of the teachers who would oppose the left’s indoctrination practices have already been weeded out in the hiring process.
“We’re going to let your kids castrate themselves, and kill your grandchildren, without ever telling you.”
Please pray for Vermont, and vote these evil people out!
This law was the begging of end to parental rights and the beginning of the disaster were facing with our kids.It was the beginning of the destruction of morality. Please don’t tell my parents I’ve been sleeping around, or taking drugs, or I’m a physiological wreck. Where in God creation does it permit schools to take away custodial care of minors. Regardless of the purported reasons.
This was deliberate effort to destroy families and famously values. The very techniques Stolen used to destroy Russia, who had a songster christian and Jewish heritage.
Excellent article, except parents are not “partners” in their children’s upbringing. Parents are the authority over their own children, not the Ssate. There is no “balanced approach” that “allows families to be partners in young people’s lives.”