“My testimony wrote itself Saturday night.”

“I attended a fundraiser for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill,” I told the Health and Government Operations Committee, before relating the following from the notes I had scribbled that evening.

“Doug Duncan, the former Montgomery County Executive, was the honoree. He told the group that the Mental Health Association had received 1,000 calls within two days of his announcement that he was ending his campaign for Governor because he suffered from depression.

“Another person with mental illness declared, ‘My mother and brother never gave up on me, even though I had.’

“I am here today on behalf of those who don’t have family to support them,” I told the committee. “House Bill 742 would allow homeless minors to obtain health care without parental consent.”

But I did not rely solely on the emotional impact of my testimony.

Before the hearing, my staff had shown me the pediatricians’ statement opposing my bill because current law allows a minor to consent to medical treatment if “the life or health of the minor would be affected by delaying treatment” to obtain parental consent.

I shared this with Debbie Agus, the mental health professional who asked me to introduce my legislation. Consequently, when the committee chair read from the doctors’ statement, she was prepared.

“That standard doesn’t address the reality for homeless children,” she replied.