(LifeSiteNews) – Did you have on your 2023 bingo card that Oregon Republicans and Independents would successfully stand up for hard-working Oregonians in a leftist-controlled state? Over ten days ago, I hit back against Oregon’s majority Democrats and their lawlessness with 12 of my fellow Republican and Independent State Senators.

We decided enough is enough; it’s been decades of Democrats running rough-shod over Oregon’s Constitution with poorly written bills that ignore Oregon’s Constitutional rule Article IV, Section 21 and subsection 5 of Senate Rule 13.02 and ORS 171.134 and behaving as if they are above the law by pursuing extreme, special interest-laden agendas all on the backs of hard-working Oregonians and their constitutional rights.

Oregon’s State Senate has a quorum rule which requires 20 out of 30 senators to be in attendance before business can take place.

Stopping the legislative process, due to a lack of quorum, is not “unconstitutional.” It is a tool that has been used throughout history, including by Oregon’s Democrats, to prevent the tyranny of the majority and protect the rights of the minority. There is no constitutional requirement for anyone to provide a quorum.

Last year, the Democrat majority crafted a newly minted Constitutional amendment that limits legislators to only 10 unexcused absences. If a senator exceeds that limit, he or she will be barred from holding office in the next term, following the current term. If it comes down to it, I am willing to sacrifice my eligibility because I will not bow my knee to the unconstitutional, illegal, and unscientific demands of today’s Democrat majority.

Today, Oregon’s Democrats are pushing an extremist bill that prohibits parental consent for or knowledge regarding any child, regardless of age, who might receive an abortion. It also prohibits all parents from being informed about their 15-year-old minor children who might be receiving irreversible sex-change treatments and procedures.

I think this is an unconscionable standard and it causes one to question why all other adults, particularly those with hidden or monetary interests, would have access to this information but not Mom or Dad. This is a very focused and purposeful version of government censorship leveled against parents that simultaneously authorizes government disruption of the nuclear family and the takeover parental rights.

It promotes the Biden administration’s faulty accusation that caring parents are “domestic terrorists” by painting all parents, in every circumstance, as untrustworthy. The bill makes it illegal to inform parents of all reproductive or gender-altering “care” provided to their minor children. How does a random adult – teacher, principal, nurse, physician, pharmacist, or hospital receptionist – have more influence than a child’s parent or legal guardian in the rightful lineup for medical decision making? These other adults will simply collect their pay and go home, while parents and their children will be forced to deal with the life-long consequences of this guidance and secrecy.

This brings Biden’s recent comments about how there’s “no such thing as someone else’s child” to a new light. Oregon’s government wants ownership of these kids.

Most Oregonians agree this is a twisted bill, and pro-lifers are on the right side of history, as is evidenced by the thousands of emails I’ve gotten thanking me for walking out and halting the legislative process.

The bill the Democrats are pushing does change Oregon law by allowing government and state actors, as well as a 10-year-old girl and her potential trafficker, to hide a traumatic abortion procedure from her parents.

Why do we require parental consent regarding dental work, eyeglasses, or the delivery of a Tylenol tablet? This is a run-away healthcare agenda funded by the medical industrial complex and it is child abuse top to bottom.

Tyranny is born through the abandonment of legal, traditional, and historic norms for life and livelihood. Our families have historically been the primary source for instilling human dignity, virtue, and values which propagate through our communities with generational flourishing. Our fight in Oregon is about children, their families, and their parents’ Natural and Divine rights.

I will not aid and abet the culture of corruption, which has fully captured the Oregon government. I will stand firm and let the truth ring loud and clear.

State Senator Dennis Linthicum (R-Klamath Falls) represents hard-working Oregonians in District 28, encompassing parts of Southern and Central Oregon. He serves as the Republican Caucus Whip and has been a state senator for 6 years. Linthicum is a lifelong advocate for pro-life causes.