In 2012, Hillary Clinton popularized an old African saying, “It takes a village to raise a child,” meaning the whole community should be involved in turning a small child into a productive adult member of society. Progressives have surreptitiously replaced village with government. Witness their latest assault on parental rights and responsibilities added to all previous federal incursions.

The Biden-Harris administration just released its “comprehensive guidance”  regarding what medical care 38 million Medicaid/CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) under-18 enrollees will receive and will be denied. Never mind what parents think or what pediatricians advise.

Full disclosure: This author is a pediatrician, father, and grandfather.

Even the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) has fallen prey to the substitution of officialdom for parental judgment. They added the poorly tested, medically dangerous CoViD genetic treatment (not a vaccine) to the routine childhood vaccination schedule. Follow-up data has shown children are in greater danger from the CoViD jab than the infection.

Deciding proper medical care is simply one more act of federal regulatory takeover of the role of parents. This became obvious during the height of Washington’s CoViD scam.

Everywhere in the country, children large and small, even babies, had to wear surgical masks by federal order. Never mind that children were not at risk from CoViD, that masks do not protect from infection, or that masks were contaminated with bacteria that caused diseases like Lyme disease, meningitis, and tuberculosis. Parents who did not want to “facemask” their children were risking the wrath of the “village,” the government.

Researchers who tried to publish information contrary to Anthony Fauci’s pronouncements were censored, canceled, and banned from online outlets. So, when parents sought information to discharge their responsibility for their children’s health and welfare, the only data they could access were limited to what Washington allowed them to see, certainly nothing that questioned official statements. After all, Father (government) Knows Best.

If parents want to purchase short-term health insurance, Washington has declared that is a waste of money. The Biden-Harris administration passed rules prohibiting the sale of what they labeled “junk” insurance.

Parents are expected by society and even the Bible (Proverbs 22:6) to be responsible for educating and training their children. That most assuredly includes sex education and orientation.

To be clear, a person’s genetic code, XX (female) or XY (male), is immutable. It is only the outward expression — appearance, behavior, even anatomic structures — that can be changed.

The Department of Education and teacher’s unions include so-called transgender education within kindergarten curricula. School teachers are allowed to educate children about transitioning while hiding such indoctrination from the parents.

For past millennia, parents would model the roles of father and mother for sons and daughters. Now, schoolteachers tell children not to pay attention to their parents and urge youngsters to emulate new, alternate forms of behavior.

Drag Queens are allowed to read to first graders at story hour, against parents’ wishes. When parents speak out at school board meetings opposing what schools are doing to their children, Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice investigated parents as domestic terrorists.

The same usurpation of parental responsibilities occurs with non-sexual education.  Overtly racist, i.e., anti-white “oppressor” critical race theory (CRT) is taught in public schools even though parents do not approve. This social justice propaganda is today’s equivalent of the antisemitic manuals for Brown Shirt Youth in Nazi Germany. Most parents are not racist and do not want any form of anti-anything ideology taught to their children, whether it is anti-black, anti-white, anti-Israel, or anti-Islam. However, school boards and the teacher’s union know what is best for the children, better than the parents. CRT remains in the curricula.

Big Brother, champion of DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) ideology, has even taken away words like parent, mother, father, son or daughter, substituting renna, moddy, noddy, and sprog.

The most important job for any parent is to raise their child or children: educating, modeling, and providing structure. In that way, the present generation passes on their fundamental values and prepares children to become productive adults who make life a little better for the next generation.

Deploying the power of federal, progressive-dominated Washington has taken over the responsibilities of parents, aka caregivers. The “village” has made the roles of mother and father irrelevant and obsolete, but only if we let them!

Deane Waldman, M.D., MBA is Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, Pathology, and Decision Science; former Director of Center for Healthcare Policy at Texas Public Policy Foundation; former Director of New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange; and author of 12 books, including multi-award winning, Curing the Cancer in U.S. Healthcare: StatesCare and Market-Based Medicine.  Contact him at www.deanewaldman.com.

Image: Freepik license.