On April 21, 2017, Columbia University hosted an event about the implementation of a guidance called “Fulfill: Young People’s Sexual Rights!” The organizers of this event were the Columbia Population Research Center (CPRC) together with International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS) who developed the guidance. Panelist included representatives from IPPF, Planned Parenthood and Mt. Sinai Hospital.

WAS said the guidance would help youth, especially adolescents, exercise unfettered sexual autonomy without any parental oversight.

Consent was a huge topic during the event. Proponents of the guidance said they want to “modify sexual consent laws that put young people at risk.”

If a young person wants to have an abortion, receive contraception or to take hormonal therapy to block their natural hormonal development, the guidance says they do not need the consent of a parent, even though we are talking about powerful drugs that can have immediate and long term negative side effects parents should probably know about.

Professor John Santelli, from Columbia University, mentioned that “the United States if the only country to not sign conventional child rights” and should be implemented as soon as possible to allow children have their own rights.

Parents aren’t teaching children about sexual and reproductive health, Chelsea France complained.

The undergraduate student said “young people who are accessing information on sexual rights should gain information from credible sources—not just parents.” She said young people would find it hard to get information about STDs from parents.

There are many people who would want the implementation of this guidance to happen.

But many adolescents are completely oblivious about these so-called ‘rights’. If this guidance gets implemented it would cause havoc. Parents would not be able to call their children “theirs” anymore. Children could not even be taught what is right or wrong anymore.