Young people and youth problems. Preteen girl left alone at home, sends text messages with phone to friends. Concept of potential victim of cyber bulling and absence of parental control diego_cervo/Getty Images/iStockphoto

On parental rights, the contrast between red and blue states couldn’t be starker

Washington Examiner April 28, 12:00 AM April 28, 12:00 AM Video Embed

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this February released its Youth Risk Behavior Survey, covering the years 2011-2021. The data were alarming. Almost 3 of every 5 teenage girls reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless in 2021, and nearly a third of them said they had considered suicide, up 60% from a decade ago.

So children, particularly young girls, are suffering an epidemic of depression. The two main political parties have vastly different diagnoses of the problem. This is reflected in solutions that states are putting forward to address it, which tell us much about which direction each party would take the country as a whole. The stakes could hardly be higher.

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For Democrats, the cause of this mental health crisis is conservatives’ failure to accept nonconventional gender identities among the younger generation. According to the latest Gallup survey, gay, lesbian, and transgender identification has surged in recent years from 3.5% in 2012 to 7.1% today. This growth has come from the youngest generation. Just 1.7% of the Silent Generation and 3.3% of Generation X identify as LGBT compared to 20% of Gen Z. It is well established that people of all ages embracing this identity suffer from higher rates of depression.

Democrats increasingly want to tackle the problem by empowering professional caregivers to take this growing young population away from their parents and give them the healthcare treatment they think best. To this end, California’s Assembly Bill 665 would make it easier for mental health professionals to remove children from families and provide the abortion or sex-change procedures that mental health professionals say are necessary, without even informing the parents of these children, let alone seeking their consent. Washington’s Senate Bill 5599 similarly empowers that state’s mental health professionals over parents. Both of these are one-party Democratic states.

Speaking in favor of California’s bill, Assemblyman Corey Jackson explained, “Many of us come from communities in which there is a large stigma when it comes to mental health. … And in many cases, these mental health issues originate from the family situations. So this is not just something that we can just continue with [these] talking points and this narrative about parents’ rights. Let’s just talk about saving lives.”

Democrats are thus clear about the source of the problem and the solution. They say the problem is the family. They want mental health professionals, using state power, to do things to minor children that their parents would not approve of. Their solution is to save your children from… you.

Republicans have a different diagnosis and a different solution. Republican-controlled states such as Utah and Texas recognize that the use of social media on mobile devices has exploded at exactly the same time that depression has been rising, especially among girls. It is children who use social media the most who are most likely to be depressed.

In response, Republican state governments are empowering parents over the objections of Big Tech corporations. They are mandating age verification for all mobile applications and requiring all minors to receive their parents’ permission to use social media apps. They are also empowering parents to monitor their children’s use of apps. Some states are also implementing default social media curfews, between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., that parents would have to opt out of for their children.

The contrast between blue and red states on rising youth mental health problems could not be clearer. Blue states’ solutions move to weaken family ties and empower government. Red states are moving to weaken corporations and empower families.

These battles are playing out in state houses across the country, but they will inevitably come to Congress and the White House soon.

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