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Protect Parent/Child Relationships:
OPPOSE HB2002

It passed the House on May 1st and is now on the Senate side. 

Update May 1: There were many impassioned, articulate, and deep-diving speeches in opposition to HB 2002B given on the House floor. One assessment is that most of the Democrats’ in support of the bill spoke to making sure abortion is accessible due to the overturn of Roe v Wade and that trans people matter and need access to what could be life-saving surgeries. But the Republicans by and large did not disagree with that.

Oregon already has very generous abortion laws, allowing abortions right up to the time of birth and allowing minors 15 and over access to them without parental consent. The spoken concerns about HB2002B (as well as ours) are about the impacts of minors of any age receiving abortions without parental knowledge or input; the cost burdens of the many requirements put on schools, health care centers, and insurance companies; and the impact of minors (who can’t even get tattoos) being able to get other types of very permanent treatments.

Update May 3: Our Senate Republicans are fighting as hard as they can for all Oregonians to have laws that are plainly written and easy to understand.

Do you understand the bills that the legislature has been trying to pass? Did you know that BY LAW (Senate Rules, Oregon statute, and the Oregon Constitution), bills should be written in a way that we can actually understand them?

HB 2002-B is just one of many nearly impossible bills to understand. We’ve seen how even the Senate Chief Sponsor of HB 2002 didn’t understand a very basic premise of it, despite being, in her own words, “intimately involved” in its drafting.  When the majority of bills and their summaries are not plainly written and easy to understand, Oregonians are disenfranchised AND laws are violated.
According to Senate Rules, Oregon statute, and the Oregon Constitution, bills must be plainly written and easy to understand.

Scroll to Section 3 of this page for some calls to action.

On This Page:

(1) What is HB2002? •  (2) Videos of Meetings • (3) Calls to Action

(1) What is HB2002?

It is an “omnibus bill,” which means it seeks to make MANY different changes to Oregon’s laws. It is 46 pages long and very difficult to understand. Even a Chief Sponsor of the bill, Senator Elizabeth Steiner, didn’t understand some key changes it would make!

HERE is the official page of the bill on Oregon’s Legislative website.

The Unite Oregon Now groups are concerned about these issues:

HB2002 would allow children OF ANY AGE to get reproductive health care without parental approval, oversight, consent, or even knowledge. It places a wedge between parents and their children (including 9 year olds or younger) and allows the government and arbitrary doctors to decide what’s best for a child.

This bill continues to allow minors over 15 to get ANY medical services without parental consent or knowledge.

Why This Bill Hurts Parents AND Children:

  • It erodes parent/child relationships.
  • Parents know the medical and psychological histories of their children best. They must be involved.
  • Most children lack the emotional maturity and neurological development to make major decisions with life-long impact by themselves. Parents provide the best guidance. (For children in abusive situations, providers already have the responsibility to find other supportive resources for them.)
  • Parents are responsible (financially, legally, and morally) for their children. If there is a side effect or life threatening consequence of a treatment, parents NEED to know what treatments their children have had.
  • Children deserve the best medical care available and that requires parental involvement whenever possible.
  • Sex traffickers, pedophiles, and kidnappers will benefit from this bill as it allows them to conceal exploited children. Without parental consent, no one would know these children are missing or kidnapped when they are brought in to clinics for reproductive care. If this bill passes, clinics would not need to make any effort to contact a child’s parent.

Not only are the 46 pages of the bill itself complex and confusing, but the summaries are confusing as well.

(Try to) read the Staff Measure Summary HERE.

And HERE is the text of the bill. On the first page, you’ll find the bill’s SUMMARY. It’s complicated and confusing and doesn’t even say it would allow a minor of ANY AGE to seek any kind of reproductive care WITHOUT parental consent or knowledge!

We’ve been told that some legislators never even read the actual bill; they only read the summaries. Perhaps this is why the co-chairs of the Joint Ways and Means Committee DIDN’T EVEN KNOW THE VERY BASICS of what this bill would do!

(2) Videos: A Large, Confusing Bill. Many Unanswered Questions.

Full video from the April 12 Joint Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health and Human Services.  There are no answers to some important questions: CLICK HERE

Full video of the April 13 work session of the Joint Committee on Ways and Means:  CLICK HERE

5 minute clip below. Click on it to watch it on YouTube where there are time-stamps you can use.

Watch to the end where the co-chairs (one of whom is a CHIEF SPONSOR of the bill) do not understand (and seem shocked by) a basic piece of this bill: that it allows a minor OF ANY AGE to get any reproductive care, including abortions, WITHOUT parental consent or knowledge.

(3) Calls to Action! Voice your opposition NOW!

**If you haven’t already, please take a moment to check out and learn to navigate the Oregon Legislative Information System (OLIS) website. Watch THESE VIDEOS for a great jump-start.

CTA 1: Call and email all Senators! 

Tell them that according to law, HB2002 (and its summaries) should be written in plain language!

Jump to Phone Numbers for Calling

Jump to Email Writing Lab

Quick Tips:

    1. Contact all Senators right away! 
    2. Always be polite, respectful, and professional!
    3. When calling, say something like: “Please vote against HB2002.” Feel free to include more if you’d like. You can use the talking points on this page or use your own if you choose to elaborate. If you are a constituent, mention that.
    4. When emailing, include the bill number and your stance in the subject line. Maybe make the subject something like: “HB2002 needs to be understandable. Oppose!”
    5. If you are a constituent of the legislator, add “from constituent” in the subject and body of your email. Those hold more weight. (If you don’t know who represents you, find out HERE.)
    6. Remember, our reasons for contacting our legislators isn’t just to voice our disagreement. It’s also important to contact legislators who agree with us. They will know how much we support them which might encourage them to fight even harder for us. They appreciate our support!

    Unfortunately, this is very partisan bill and legislators are expected to vote along their party’s lines. The Democrats are expected to all vote FOR this bill, and the Republicans are expected to all vote against (scroll down this page to see some legislator’s newsletters explaining why).

    VIEW SOME SAMPLE LETTERS to legislators HERE. Feel free to copy and paste to make it your own.

  2. Senate phone numbers listed on the Phone Number List page.

    CTA 2: Tell your family, friends, and community about this destructive bill.

    It’s time to rally the troops!

    • Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper.
    • Post on social media: your own page and community pages.
    • Attend public meetings (school boards, city council, library, etc etc) and spread the word.
    • Talk about it as you’re out and about, for example: “Hey did you hear about the terrible bill that the Oregon Legislature is trying to pass…?”