We were debating a bill that would allow a medical professional to provide mental health care to a child as young as 12 years old without informing the child’s parents – if that disclosure would lead to harm to the child or deter the child from seeking care.

Delegate Dan Cox compared the legislation to the evidence at the Nuremberg trials that Nazi medical professionals interfered with parental rights. He also said that the bill was unconstitutional.

I rose to explain my vote.

“Telford Taylor succeeded Justice Jackson as the Chief Prosecutor in Nuremberg, and I was privileged to have him as a constitutional law professor.

              “And among the many things that he taught us were that one does not lightly make a comparison to the Holocaust and one does not lightly make an assertion that a legislative act is unconstitutional.

             “I’m very proud to vote for this bill.”