Defending Parental Rights and Protecting Children

Washington, DC – September 16, 2026

On September 15, 2026, Dr. Simone Gold and the AFLDS legal team filed an amici curiae brief with the Supreme Court of the United States on the merits in International Partners for Ethical Care, Inc. v. Ferguson (25-840). Our brief urges the Supreme Court to reverse the Ninth Circuit’s decision denying fit parents access to the courts while Washington State displaces them from medical decision-making regarding their own gender-confused children.

AFLDS filed at the certiorari stage earlier this year and SCOTUS granted review on June 29th. The question now is whether Washington State’s 2023 Family Reconciliation Act amendments may unconstitutionally brand parents unfit, hide runaway children from them, and facilitate so-called “gender-affirming” interventions — all without parental notice, consent, or due process, and without any finding of abuse or neglect.

The Petitioners are mothers and fathers raising children in accordance with biological reality. Under the challenged law, a minor who runs away and claims to seek “gender-affirming treatment” may be kept from parents by the Department of Children, Youth, and Family Services. The state may delay reunification and begin interventions that can sterilize a child, destroy sexual function, and require lifelong medical dependence. The Ninth Circuit held these parents lacked standing — a ruling AFLDS contends is unconstitutional and medically dangerous.

Parental care, custody, and control is among the oldest liberty interests recognized by this Court. It is meaningless if parents must wait until a child has been chemically or surgically altered before they may be heard. Secret “affirmation” is not neutral health care. It is the first step toward puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical mutilation of healthy bodies.

The evidence does not support Washington’s approach. The vast majority of gender-confused minors naturally outgrow their confusion if they are not pushed into social and medical “affirmation.” HHS’s May 2025 comprehensive review found that these treatments “have very weak evidence of benefit, but carry risk of significant harms, including sterilization.” The United Kingdom closed Tavistock; European nations have sharply restricted these interventions. Washington State is moving in the opposite direction, in secret, over parental objection.

The Petitioners have standing because the statute targets them for their viewpoints. Recent decisions — Bost, Diamond Alternative Energy, First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, and Mirabelli — confirm that when a law makes a defined class its object, that class has legal standing to challenge such a law. The injuries to parents and children here are state-inflicted, not “self-inflicted” as found by the Ninth Circuit.

AFLDS Founder and President Dr. Simone Gold stated: “The government has no authority to brand fit parents as unfit simply because they refuse to participate in the medical mutilation of their children. Gender ideology denies biological reality and demands obedience to a false construct over truth. Parents answer for their children before God — not before bureaucrats. The Constitution protects families, not ideology.”

AFLDS attorney David Dalia added, “This case presents a direct and deliberate usurpation of the parental role. Washington State’s law does not merely intrude upon parental authority — it obliterates it. Standing doctrine cannot be manipulated to shield that usurpation from constitutional review. When these parent Petitioners are the very targets of a statute, they must be allowed into court to defend their families. The Court granted certiorari to decide whether a state may conceal children from fit parents and put them on a path of lifelong irreversible harm. It should now reverse.”

Alongside cases such as Regino v. Blake and Mahmoud v. Taylor, this case will help decide whether parents still have the constitutional authority to protect their children, or whether states may seize that authority under the banner of “protected health care.”

International Partners will be argued before the Supreme Court on December 7th. Stay tuned as AFLDS continues to defend parental rights, protect children, and restrain unlawful government usurpation.

###

About AFLDS

We are the Nation's independent authority on ethical and transparent standards in science, health, and human rights. We provide individuals with unbiased and accurate information from the world's top experts in medicine and law so you can be empowered with facts to protect your rights, take care of your health, and safeguard your future. Visit AFLDS.org

Media Contact Lisa Alexander, Executive Director | Media@AFLDS.org