BOISE — The Idaho House State Affairs Committee unanimously passed a bill Monday that would add to the list of circumstances when a parent’s rights to their children can be terminated.
Presented by Reps. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, and Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, HB 463 would make it so that a parent convicted of sexual abuse against any child could have their rights to their own children revoked. The bill adds a singular line to existing Idaho code on terminating parent-child relationships, which currently gives a court grounds to terminate a parent-child relationship only if the parent is convicted of sexually abusing their own child.
“Where the law has gone wrong is if that same parent didn’t sexually molest his children, but sexually molested … other children, he has full access to his children,” Ehardt told the committee. “This has created a problem, and I think you’re going to hear a little bit about it.”…