A case in Minnesota could send parental rights on a disastrous course if the case goes against a mother's wishes for her teenage son.

Annmarie Calgaro discovered that school, county, and local health officials were taking her 17-year-old son through sex-change procedures without her permission, notification, or due process as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Eric Kaardal, a Thomas More Society attorney, tells OneNewsNow that government agencies are deciding children under the age of 18 are emancipated from their parents without a court order, notice, or opportunity for the parents to be heard.

In this case, the lower court agreed the mother had parental authority over the underage boy. But ironically, the court threw out the case anyway. The ruling is being taken to the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Kaardal shares that he consulted with some of the top legal scholars in the country who see it as turning a "new corner" in the legal realm.

"It's a corner where we're realizing that the most fundamental right – that is, parental rights – is an issue now in the United States," he continues. "And we have to, as a people, insist that the state and local governments honor parental rights; or essentially we're culturally doomed.

The case is a clear example of why lawmakers in both houses of Congress are dealing with a proposal (S.J.Res. 48) to amend the U.S. Constitution to guarantee parental rights (related story).

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