The new rules make it the kids’ job to stop child abuse, but they don’t do anything to stop it.
As I’m in a virtual room with a few lawyers talking about how to help young people get health care without breaking the new law that makes it illegal for adults to help minors get abortions, someone says, “Well, the law doesn’t stop kids from teaching their peers about abortion.” “Why don’t we just teach them?”
It’s interesting that you said that. It’s not that teens and young adults can’t help their friends; it’s just that they shouldn’t have to. They shouldn’t have to have to talk to their friends about problems or put trusted adults at risk of being sued for a million dollars by an aggressive district attorney.
This law is one of many that were passed this year that are supposed to “protect children and punish those who hurt them.” Another one lets the death sentence be used for raping a child, and a third one lets people who are found guilty of continuous sexual abuse be watched for life.
Teenagers in Tennessee are forced to choose between continuing to suffer in silence or getting the help they need to stop the violence, even if it means facing the death penalty or life in prison supervision for a family member or friend. People who hurt children can now use these rules as another way to scare kids into not getting help by threatening to put a family member to death if the kid gets help.
New rules don’t do anything to stop child abuse. Instead, they make kids, some of whom have been abused, possibly responsible for putting a family member to death.
Also, these rules don’t do anything to stop the sexual abuse of children. Even the people who pushed for the laws agree that they are mostly used to punish people for harm that has already been done and are not a good way to stop people from doing bad things. In its place, they keep up policies that haven’t worked for decades and don’t deal with the structural and interpersonal reasons of abuse.
In the same way, this year the legislature passed laws that make it harder for parents to get off the hook if their kids are with registered sex offenders or if they “fail” to keep their kids safe in possibly dangerous situations, even if nothing bad happens. Many studies show that violence and hurt happen in all communities. However, punitive laws target Black and brown, working class, and disabled communities more than others, even though these groups are already over-policed and over-watched. These rules hurt communities that are already struggling even more and don’t actually help kids’ health.
We don’t have much to show for the well-being of children after decades of failed efforts to criminalize and punish people. The State of the Child Study 2023 says:
- 53% of high school girls and 30% of high school boys have felt sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in the past year. This is a 63 percent rise since 2011.
- In the past year, one in four high school kids said they had done something on purpose to hurt themselves.
- One in eight Shelby County high school girls and one in nine Metro Nashville high school girls said they had been physically forced to have a sexual act.
- The best way to stop teens from abusing their bodies is to give them the tools to learn about them and get help from an adult they trust. There are still big problems that need to be solved in prevention and care, but work has been going on.
- Tennessee’s laws against talking about any kind of sexual activity as a gateway to sexual activity make it even harder for kids to get help. This means that child sexual abuse prevention education can’t work. Tennessee doesn’t have enough mental health providers, won’t expand Medicaid, and keeps making it harder for middle-class families to get public assistance. This means that mental health treatment can’t work. In prevention programs, teens and young adults are often told to talk to a “trusted adult” about things that are making them feel bad.
Now, kids who confide in these adults face terrible problems: they put the trusted adult in a dangerous legal position; the kids think they are sentencing the people who hurt them to death or lifelong tracking; and the kids have a hard time getting the medical care they need without help.
All of this makes me wonder: if not Tennessee youth, then who are these rules really defense?
Now is the time for Tennessee kids to be kids. Teenagers should be able to make their own choices, and the government should back them in doing so. They should also have all the tools they need to grow, learn, and thrive without worrying about harm to themselves or their loved ones. This is Healthy and Free Tennessee’s fight for a future where kids, families, parents, and loved ones can all get the help they need to live free and healthy lives. The lawmakers might not be ready to protect the health and safety of Tennessee’s kids and families yet, but we’re still here fighting for everyone to have access to reproductive health care.
