Protecting Parents' Medical Rights in North Carolina (with Rep. Jennifer Balkcom)

Welcome to Family Policy Matters, a weekly podcast and radio show produced by the North Carolina Family Policy Council. Hi, I'm John Rustin, president of NC Family, and each week on Family Policy Matters, we welcome experts and policy leaders to discuss topics that impact faith and family here in North Carolina. Our prayer is that this program will help encourage and equip you to be a voice of persuasion for family values in your community, state, and nation. Thanks for joining us this week for Family Policy Matters. I'm John Rustin, president of NC Family, and I'm joined today by NC Family Vice President Mitch Prosser for a special episode of Family Policy Matters.

We're coming to you today from the legislative building in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. Many North Carolina parents are unaware that under current state law, their minor children can consent and receive medical treatment for things like sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse, and emotional. disturbance without parental consent or even parental notification or knowledge.

Some North Carolina lawmakers are seeking to change this and to reinstate an important measure of parental involvement and oversight to this area of the law. One of those lawmakers is State Representative Jennifer Balcombe from Henderson County in Western North Carolina, who joins us today. Representative Balcom, welcome and thanks so much for taking time out of your very busy schedule to be with us on family policy matters. Thank you both for having me today. Look forward to it.

Well, we look forward to the conversation with you as well. Before we jump in to talk about this legislation, Representative Balcombe, I'd like to give you an opportunity to introduce yourself.

So if you would tell us a little bit about yourself and what led you to run for a seat in the North Carolina House of Representatives. Born and raised in North Carolina. I grew up in Henderson County on a small farm.

So I've been there my entire life. I'm an eighth generation native. I have two boys. I've been in the banking mortgage industry most of my life. And considering I have two.

Boys, I realized I needed to be more involved in their school. And when I realized that, I realized that being a part of seeing our county grow and all the things happening, I wanted to do something about it and decided that maybe I should run for office to help protect those values in the town I grew up in. Yeah, certainly when a lot of us have children and we realize that we're responsible for the next generation, it certainly can change our perspective about things and maybe make things a little bit more important. That's so apropos for our discussion today because you are a primary sponsor of House Bill 519, the Parents' Medical Bill of Rights. Tell us about this bill and what it would do if it were enacted into law.

So this law particularly has been on the books for 51 years, 1971. And I think things have changed since that time. I think the biggest concern started coming in recent years where a 12-year-old, for instance, was having to get Consent to share medical records with their parents. That's kind of where it started stipulating in my constituency, and it just started broadening. I started seeing more complaints through that, even with other legislators who were asking.

And as a mom, my son at the time had just turned 12. I can't really give you why it started at that age, but it seems to be that's where the consent started asking.

So they would ask me about a broken arm or if you had a nose bleed for consent to treat my child, but for anything else in the state of North Carolina, mental health, which no one could give me a definition of. We also have substance abuse, drug abuse, that type of medical treatment. We also have STDs, sexually transmitted diseases, and then you have pregnancy.

So those are the four exceptions to North Carolina's laws that you, as a parent, do not have access to without permission from that minor.

Now we've seen recently, and I think this goes to show in a case that was Just ruled by the North Carolina Supreme Court this year that Judge Newby had actually mentioned that parents have a role in their child's medical decisions. And that case was ruled in favor of the parents on the vaccines mandates and against a school board.

So that reiterated again the responsibility as a parent to be involved in their child's medical. And my concern for the mental health aspect is if you're having a child be referred out, I think a parent should know that their child is seeing another doctor and talking with your child. When you think of mental treatment, depression is a sign that can be reportable.

So if you're treating a child for depression, you can report it under the medical exception. The concern is anxiety is not that exception.

So anxiety can change over to suicidal thoughts in a heartbeat and they may not recognize it. And here we are, we've lost a child and a parent had no idea they were even being treated for that type. Of conditioning. I would expect a lot of our listeners believe, which North Carolina does have very good parental rights laws in place, and the legislature went further to affirm the fundamental rights that parents have in legislation that was passed last legislative session. And this builds on that.

But I imagine there are parents across the state who are really surprised to learn that North Carolina has had a law on the books that allows minors to consent for these conditions. There's a lot of people that are not aware of that. Even our legislators had no idea. If the other part is, if you have younger children, you're not really seeing it until they get to 12.

So my son had the flu and they do a test.

Well, he's on my insurance. If I'm covering him as a parent on the insurance, I get the bill for the test. But that test didn't, knowing that I took him, I knew what it was, but it doesn't tell you what the test is.

So if we're testing for STDs, I'm going to get the bill. That doesn't mean I'm going to know what that test was. And of course, I'm going to go to my child. And some of the pushback. Is that children or teenagers will not seek medical care.

If they have to tell their parents that they have a sexually transmitted disease because of the treatment side, they're afraid they will not seek health care. But I found there was a study in 2014 in Texas that actually in young girls that the STD levels actually went down with parental involvement in this.

So to me, the science isn't backing what they're saying. Will I be disappointed? Absolutely, I would be disappointed. But my child is still my heart and soul, and I'm going to make sure he's going to get the medical treatment. I think all parents feel that way.

Yes, they'll be disappointed. I didn't want to know my son's sexually active, but I do want to make sure he's getting the medical treatment he needs. But you also have to look at like this. They also are a part of getting prescriptions.

So if a prescription for medical care on STDs has been written, they don't always take it at 16.

So as a parent, I can remind him to take his medicine and make sure he's following. up and medical treatment is still being done. There's nobody better positioned to look for the best interest of the child and ensure the best medical care for them, especially in some of these sensitive areas, than the parents. And I think that is something that we have seen just discussed more and more in the legislature as these parental rights bills have come up into play. I think as we look at this from the outside perspective as well, parents are the best people to take care of their children.

Parents parent their children the best. And so I couldn't agree more with what you're saying. And I think it's alarming to people, not just here in the General Assembly, but across the state as we listen to people and we tell them this, they're really just baffled. And so the legislation that you've proposed, I think, is so not just needed, it's wanted by so many parents across the state. Like I said, I don't think they were aware.

I mean, if your child is suffering from a drug addiction, do you know how helpful it would be as a parent to be able to start as soon as possible rather than not telling them at all? I mean, as a minor, a 16-year-old being addicted to drugs, the sooner we can get treatment and the family is part of that treatment system, then the better off that child has a chances of getting better rather than not telling the parent at all. One other important provision of the bill is that it would allow parents to have full access to the medical records of their minor children. Yes. And some of our listeners may have their mouths agape thinking that that's not the case now.

But in some cases, that is the case that parents do not have access to even know that their children have been treated or may be being treated for these kinds of circumstances. I know in the legislature, of course, this bill fortunately has already passed the House. And not to make this partisan, but I think it was interesting that when the bill was voted on on the House floor, there were only four members of the Democratic side of the aisle who voted in support of it, meaning the rest of the Democrats that were present and voting voted against it. What have you heard? I know you've shared a little bit about some of the Opposition.

Are there other things that you've heard? I can't speak for them, but here's what I find ironic.

So I have Democrats and Republicans in my district, and I have support from both Democrats and Republican parents. Parents with children, regardless, they all want to know what's happening with their child, period.

So to me, it is a non-partisan issue here. This is a mom and a dad, no matter what party you are, wanting to know what's going on with their child. And I have reiterated that with the Democratic Party. And I've had side conversations with some of them. There was another bill passed that had similar language to this, and it was passed across the board, 100%.

And I said, do you understand that that language in that particular bill, it was a Liam's law, which gave access to college records for minors, is the same concept as what I'm doing. I said, if that college records could have helped save the suicide of Liam, why wouldn't the medical records of someone who is having a Mental health crisis, not be able to save another child like Liam.

So, I use that as an example because it truly is the same concept of what we're doing in the House Bill 519 with the parents' medical bill rights. And one of the things that we heard is we listened to the debate, and we've heard some discussion offline as well. One of the focuses has been on the exception to the rule of parents parenting their children the best way possible, and that is what about in cases where the parent may be abusing a child or there's neglect, and those are the exceptions to the rule. Yes, we wrote that into the bill.

Now, there is certain ones currently in statute. If a medical profession sees that there is abuse, they have the right to report. I reiterated that even in this bill, giving them even with abuse or the same right to report in this bill.

So, we didn't take it away. We reiterated their rights to still protect children. And I say that also in this bill, they can still have a conversation. It's the treatment. If you're going to give my son medicine, If you're going to talk to my son about how to help him mentally, before you start that treatment, because I have seen where a physician said you need to just keep everyone out of your life and focus on you.

Well, my thought is the people who love that person, that child, need to be in their life to reiterate how much they mean to them, not pushed away. And I think that treatment, that's the line, you can have the conversation because how do you diagnose what the problem is without a conversation? And I understood that, but it is the treatment that I'm concerned about what you're going to prescribe, whether it be mental, STDs, drug, any of those. I want to know what the treatment is because I may have something that I can help or I may want a second opinion. The only thing I would say to the exception is our hearts certainly break for those children who are being abused or neglected.

And I'm so grateful that you put that provision in there to continually protect those children. But like we said, that's the exception and not the rule. And I'm appreciative that you've governed according to the rule. This bill and not only looking at the exception as the focus? You know, it's about 1.2 percent of bad actor parents in the state of North Carolina.

That's 98.8 percent that is actually protecting and wants what's best for their child on their parents.

Well, we write to the 1.2 percent in criminal laws because of bad actors with criminals because we're writing it to the majority of the people who are good actors for safety and protection.

So, you have to look at it in its perspective that we are writing this particular law, which is better for the constituents, better for North Carolinians, to the 98.8 percent of the parents in the state of North Carolina who want to know what is going on with their children. Period. Clearly, Representative Balcom, House Bill 519, the Parents' Medical Bill of Rights is extremely important. There were some aspects of the current law that this bill seeks to address, and very necessarily so, and so we're grateful for your leadership. Tell us what is the current status of this bill and what can our listeners do if this is something that they want to weigh in on this important piece of legislation.

So currently it's in the Senate. This bill was actually filed in the Senate as well by Senator Moffitt. From what I understand, there is a lot of support in the Senate for it. I think this is the second step from the Parents Bill of Rights.

So I feel like you'll see that start moving in the Senate because of its support. I think if anyone wants to get involved, they need to contact their senators. to let them know you're in support of it. Any support we can get the Senate to let them know where they stand would be amazing so that they know as their constituent they support it. That's great.

Well, thank you so much for that. Thank you for your leadership on this very important bill. Our listeners who would like to reach out to their state senators can go to the North Carolina Family Policy Council website at ncfamily.org and go to our action center and you can easily send a message to your member of the state senate urging them to support House Bill 519, the Parents Medical Committee Bill of Rights. Representative Balkham, thank you so much for your time, for your insights, and for your leadership. You are just a stalwart, wonderful, compassionate member of the legislature.

We're so grateful for your service and the sacrifices that you make to represent the people of the state of North Carolina.

So, thank you so much for all that you do. Thank you for your leadership, and thank you for taking time to be with us today. Thank you. Thank you for listening to Family Policy Matters. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and leave us a review.

To learn more about NC Family and the work we do to promote and preserve faith and family in North Carolina, visit our website at ncfamily.org. That's ncfamily.org. And check us out on social media at NC Family Policy. Thanks and may God bless you and your family.