Illinois mother and founder of Partners For Ethical Care, Jeannette Cooper, slammed the state’s proposed bill which is attempting to broaden the definition of “abused child” to include minors who have been denied “gender-affirming care” Thursday on Fox News.
Cooper appeared on “The Ingraham Angle” to discuss the new proposed Illinois measure, introduced by state Democratic Rep. Anne Stava-Murray, which does not define the services included in “gender-affirming care,” according to NBC Montana. Fox host Laura Ingraham questioned the mother on her “new warning” for viewers regarding the new legislation. (RELATED: Even Democrats Aren’t Sold On Pushing Gender Ideology In Schools, Polls Show)
“This bill absolutely has it backwards. We know what abuse is, people know what abuse is, we know what an abused child is,” Cooper said. “The standard and the statute says quite clearly that an abused child is someone whose parent or guardian has inflicted permanent damage to their bodily function. That’s exactly what gender medicine does. It inflicts permanent damage, permanent harm on a child. Removing a child’s breasts is permanent damage to a body. That is child abuse.”
“Do you think this bill, as currently written changing this definition of abuse, to basically make a lot of Christian families abusive by definition – does this have a real shot of becoming law?” Ingraham questioned.
“No, absolutely not,” Cooper responded. “The citizens of Illinois are not going to stand for something like this. They don’t agree with the concept of gender identity. Absolutely not. I mean, Chicago is not the entire state. There’s an entire state in Illinois and they don’t believe in such a concept of gender identity and they certainly don’t believe we should be abusing children with gender medicine.”
“What’s interesting is you talked about FGM, female genital mutilation, and in that statute it says quite clearly that a parent who consents to this and a child who consents to this, they are not the ones responsible,” Cooper went on, referring to an earlier remark from Ingraham. “The people who are responsible are the doctors who perform this. The individuals who perform this on them. Those are the people who should be held to account. Those are the people who should be taken to the legal system so that people can get justice for what was done to them by the hospitals here in Illinois and elsewhere in this country.”
Cooper was stripped of her parental custody over her then 12-year-old daughter, Sofia, in 2022 after she questioned the teen’s alleged transgender claims. The issue was taken to court where a judge sided with Sofia’s father who alleged that the teen was mentally and emotionally unsafe while staying with Cooper.
Ingraham asked the Illinois mother about the status of her custody and when she had seen Sofia last.
“I still haven’t seen my daughter, I haven’t seen her in two and a half years now,” Cooper said. “But, by all accounts, I think she is doing the same thing that I’m doing which is making lemonade out of lemons. The separation from your biological mother is a trauma to mom, me, and it’s a trauma to my child. But we’re both quite resilient people. And I think we are doing the best that we can. I think her perspective will change over time. Just like everybody’s does. And on this bill in particular, I hope the representative who introduced this bill will change her perspective, also. I think that will happen.”
Along with Stava-Murray’s attempt to amend the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act by broadening the “abused child” definition, her legislation would also amend the Consent by Minors to Health Care Services Act to allow a minor to consent to their own “gender-affirming services,” according to NBC Montana. The measure would also protect healthcare professionals from punishment if they were to provide minors with “gender-affirming services,” the outlet reported.