Does the parent have rights?

Emily Gruenhagen writes,

On Wednesday, November 16th, a northern Minnesota mother filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal district court. She is asking the court to restore her 14th amendment constitutional due process rights which she claims were violated when her parental rights were suddenly and arbitrarily removed. [See press release.]

In June, 2015, without her knowledge, consent, or involvement, Anmarie Calgaro’s fifteen-year-old son obtained a “Notice of Emancipation” from Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, a nonprofit agency that provides free legal services to low income people.

Using this document alone, state agencies and private services shut Anmarie out of every important physical, emotional, and educational decision her minor son was making. Suddenly and without notice, she no longer had access to his school or health records. Without her consent, the state issued him a state driver’s license and county health services approved housing and other county services.

A private health service began prescribing dangerous hormonal drugs to ‘transition’ him from male to female. This health service never consulted her, even though these controversial and largely untested drugs cause potentially irreversible effects and have unknown long-term risks. He was even prescribed narcotics from another health service. Clearly, Anmarie’s God-given and constitutionally protected parental rights have been violated. And her responsibilities to care for her son’s physical and emotional health and safety have been blocked by the actions of these agencies and services. She has been denied the chance to plead her case in court.

Read more here.