Friends and Neighbors-

I believe deep in my soul that God called me to serve. I am guided by the principles of my faith in everything I do, but I am also am guided by science and biology. I firmly believe that I have been placed in this position to serve my constituents and advance the values that make our country great.

The number one reason I have felt called to serve is to protect our children. They don’t have a voice in the legislature, but they are affected by nearly every decision that we make. My mission is to make sure we protect them – to make sure they have a great education and grow and play in safe communities, and that they are protected from the evils of this world.

If you have been following along with the Legisature this year, you are familiar with some of the bills I am referring to. Last week on the Senate floor we debated a few of them, but I wanted to talk to you about one in particular. It’s a bill that would grant sanctuary for people seeking transgender therapy, but it contains a horrifying provision related to minors. The provision says the following:

“518D.204 TEMPORARY EMERGENCY JURISDICTION.

A court of this state has temporary emergency jurisdiction if the child is present in

this state and:

(1) the child has been abandoned or;

(2) it is necessary in an emergency to protect the child because the child, or a sibling or

parent of the child, is subjected to or threatened with mistreatment or abuse; or

(3) the child has been unable to obtain gender-affirming health care as defined in section

543.23, paragraph (b).

In other words, the bill grants the state of Minnesota the authority to take custody of minor children from a parent for no reason other than they won't give permission for permanent, mutilative surgeries. Read it for yourself here, starting on line 2.27.

It’s tragic. It’s heartbreaking. These are terrible surgeries that could potentially be conducted on minors against the wishes of parents. We are talking about chemical castration. About sterilization. About permanent, physical changes.

I offered an amendment to this bill that would prohibit the use of cross-sex hormones, hormone suppressants, and invasive surgery on minors. As a society, we have universally agreed that minors are still developing and do not have the brain development, maturity or knowledge to make informed decisions about consequential issues like this. That science has been settled for some time now.

These are life-changing decisions that can have permanent effects on a child's physical and mental health, as well as their ability to have children in the future. It's crucial that we protect the rights of parents and protect minors from making these decisions before they are fully equipped to understand the gravity of their choice.

Please take a moment to watch my speech on this amendment. You can find it below: