CHILDREN HAVE RIGHTS

Children have a natural right to their mother and father.

NATURAL RIGHTS VERSUS LEGAL RIGHTS

• Natural rights are those that are not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture.
• Legal rights are those bestowed onto a person by a given legal system.

Justice is served when legal rights are informed by natural rights.

CHILDREN’S RIGHTS ARE THE FLIP SIDE OF PARENTAL RIGHTS

In the parent-child relationship, rights are symbiotic; the inherent right a mother and father possess to raise their child is tied to the fact that they’re the only two people responsible for bringing their child into existence.

“Biological parents have a strictly non-transferable obligation to love their children themselves, an obligation that is weighty, given the unique closeness of the parent-child biological relationship and the importance of this benefit for the well-being of the child.” – Parental Rights expert Melissa Mochella

Parents don’t leave the maternity ward with just any baby; they leave with their baby. The parents’ singular relationship with their child confers the right to raise that child. Likewise, the singular child-parent relationship accords the child the right to be raised by his or her mother and father. Parents have a right to leave the maternity ward with their baby, and the baby has a right to leave the maternity ward with his or her parents.

THREE RULES THAT MAKE IT A RIGHT:

1. A natural right exists pre-government.
2. No one has to provide you with a natural right.
3. A natural right is distributed equally, no one is born with a greater or lesser potential to exercise these rights.

CHILDREN HAVE A NATURAL RIGHT TO THEIR PARENTS:

• The parent-child relationship existed before any government. It’s as pre-government as possible.
• Nobody provides children with their biological parents. If a child exists, so do his or her mother and
  father.
• Everyone has the same quantity of mother and father, we all get exactly two biological, no more and no
  less.

A child’s legal right to their parents may vary, the natural right children have to both their mother and father
is indisputable.

RIGHT TO LIFE, RIGHT TO PARENTS

If you believe in a child’s natural right to life, believing that a child has a right to his or her own parents will naturally follow because these beliefs both pass the Three Rules that Make it a Right test. Abortion and third-party reproduction (sperm/egg donation & surrogacy) are two sides of the same child-commodifying coin:

Abortion and reproductive technologies are adult-centric. Pro-abortionists measure success by whether the adults are satisfied with the outcome of the abortion, and disregard a child’s right to life. #BigFertility measures success by whether adults are satisfied with their child product, and disregard a child’s right to their mother or father.

Abortion supporters believe that if a child is unwanted, you can force her out of existence by violating her right to life. #BigFertility believes that if a child is very wanted, you can force her into existence by violating her right to her mother and father.

CHILDREN’S RIGHTS ARE ACKNOWLEDGED WORLDWIDE

The United Nations enshrined children’s right to be known and loved by both parents in the Convention on the Rights of the Child—the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history.

DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS SHOULD UNITE TO DEFEND CHILDREN’S RIGHTS

Neither Democrats who care about social justice, nor Republicans who seek limited government will get what they want until we defend children’s rights to their mother and father. That’s because parental loss is at the heart of the social ills that both parties seek to address.

• 90% of homeless and runaway youths are fatherless. Homelessness and the life of a runaway are common gateways to sex trafficking.
• 70% to 85% of prison inmates grew up without a father.
• 63% of teenagers who commit suicide have absent fathers.
• 71% of pregnant teenagers come from fatherless homes.
• 71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes.

Republicans- Small government is impossible without Big Marriage.
Democrats- There will be no social justice until we secure justice for individual children.

ADULTS NEED TO DO HARD THINGS SO CHILDREN DON’T HAVE TO

Children have been losing their parents to tragedy since the dawn of time. But these days, most children are motheror father-less not because of tragedy, but because adult desire is prioritized above children’s rights.

Our mission is to make Them Before Us more than just a catchy three-word name for our non-profit. We want Them to come before Us in the minds of all adults; we intend to right the wrong perspective and reorient the way adults view children.

Them Before Us believes adults should make the necessary sacrifices, so children don’t have to.

Excerpts from chapter 1 of “Them Before Us: Why We Need a Global Children’s Movement”