OLYMPIA — A bill in the Legislature would give teenagers who take shelter in runaway youth programs or private homeless host homes the right to seek reproductive health care or transgender-affirming health care without requiring the program to inform their parents.
The bill is Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill (ESSB) 5599.
It's advancing to possibly be considered by the full House after a 7-4 majority on the House Committee on Human Services, Youth, & Early Learning voted along political party lines to pass March 24. The bill cleared the Senate 27-19 largely along political party lines earlier this month.
It categorizes these types of health care as a compelling enough reason to remove the usual obligation on runaway youth programs and homeless host home programs to try to contact their parents within a set timeframe. (Host homes are not the same as the foster care system where a child is in the custody of the state.)
Republican committee members who voted no, such as state Rep. Carolyn Eslick (R-Sultan), emphasized families shouldn’t be shut out of the conversation.
On caring for teens, “we definitely, truly want the same results, it’s how do we get there?,” Eslick said. Keeping the family unit intact is what’s important, Eslick said.
State Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self (D-Mukilteo) agreed, but said something needs to happen now to create a bridge because kids aren’t leaving home by choice. “There needed to be services in their family (...) but it’s not happening in some cases” and that’s putting teens on the streets in vulnerable states, Ortiz-Self said.
Parents against the bill said March 22 all parents should have the overarching right to know where their child is.
Bill sponsor Sen. Marko Liias (D-Everett) said the current ‘tell-the-parents’ rules are “an obstacle to some” runaway teens from approaching a shelter. As many as 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ based on estimates.
“Reproductive health care services,” by definition, would be all-encompassing. “Gender-affirming health care” includes hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgeries.
It dedicates $7.5 million to the state’s Office of Homeless Youth (OHY) to create a grant system where nonprofits can apply for funds to go toward the needs of youth seeking these health care services.
The ‘don’t tell’ rule about teens originally tied itself to a broader Washington state shield law bill that classifies reproductive health care and transgender-affirming care as “protected health care services” under ESSB 1469, including for out-of-state travelers.
The shield law gives people from out-of-state a layer of concealment. It would block Washington state courts from fulfilling any other state’s subpoenas for information to help any criminal investigation about their residents trying to get these types of health care in Washington which is illegal in their home state, such as an abortion.
