Parental Rights in Mississippi

Mississippi Parental Rights News

State of Parental Rights Comes to the EPPiC Broadcast

By Elizabeth Schatzinger • May 13, 2026
Last month, the Parental Rights Foundation proudly announced the release of our first-ever State of Parental Rights in America (SOPRA) publication. Today, we are thrilled to bring it to the EPPiC Broadcast . EPPiC stands for “Empowering Parents, Protecting Children,” and the EPPiC Broadcast is the official podcast of the Parental Rights Foundation. Each week, I host a half-hour conversation with a scholar, lawyer, or thought leader in the realm of parental rights. This season , we have featured Kelly Fong and Frank Edwards, Vernadette Broyles, Will Estrada, Sharon Balmer-Cartagena, Alex Cinney and Toia Potts, David Kelly, Layal Bou Harfouch, Allison Green and Natalece Washington, and our new board chairman, William Wagner. Topics ranged from Fong and Edwards’ recent study on the connection between child abuse mortality rates and the number of children taken into foster care (spoiler: there is none!), to a discussion of parental rights cases then before the U.S. Supreme Court, to homeschool freedom, to the benefits of pre-petition counsel for parents, to children’s counsel in CPS cases. Now we’re finishing our twelfth season with two of the authors from this year’s SOPRA publication. May 12: Joyce McMillan The May 12 episode features Joyce McMillan, a left-leaning thought leader and parent activist, whose SOPRA article, “Common Sense Guardrails for CPS,” we unpack on the show. We discuss Joyce’s assertion that Child Protective Services, or CPS, is a carceral apparatus, not a social service system , and that as such, it should be subject to the same due process restrictions as law enforcement. Joyce also shares stories of parents caught in the system, and how recent legislative efforts in New York state are starting to move the needle in favor of keeping families free from unnecessary investigations and intrusions. Joyce is a straight shooter who turned her own tragic experience with the system into a thirty-year service to similarly-situated families. As the founder and executive director of Just Making a Change for Families ( JMAC for Families ), she has helped countless families navigate the treacherous waters of a CPS investigation while lending her voice to so many more. I am honored to have her on our Board of Advisors , and it was a privilege to speak to her for the EPPiC Broadcast . I hope you’ll take a few minutes this week to hear what she had to say. May 19: Emilie Kao Then on May 19, we’ll feature Emilie Kao, (pronounced “Gow,” rhymes with “now”) a conservative scholar and attorney, whose SOPRA article, “Preserving Childhood: Dependency, Consent, and Parental Rights in Healthcare,” fuels our conversation. Emilie shares with me how the “mature minor” doctrine arose in the twentieth century and why it should be discarded in favor of a return to the “parental presumption” that it replaced. It’s a move that would have far-reaching policy implications, but for those who support parental rights, Emilie says, it’s the right thing to do. Children, she says, are not yet ready to make such serious decisions on their own, and parents are their best and surest source of guidance. As senior counsel and vice president of advocacy strategy for Alliance Defending Freedom , Emilie is an eminent scholar in the area of parental rights, having professional experience at Heritage Foundation, the Office of International Religious Freedom at the U.S. Department of State, and even at the United Nations in Geneva. Now we are honored to have her on our Board of Advisors . Emilie has spoken on the role of the family before the United Nations in New York and in Geneva, and before the U.S. Congress in Washington. Next week, I hope you’ll tune in to hear her unpack a bit of family policy just for us in this one-on-one conversation. It was a privilege to host her on the EPPiC Broadcast. What’s Next? After Emilie’s episode, the EPPiC Broadcast will take a break for the summer, starting work in just the next few weeks to bring you new and engaging episodes starting again in September. Please take a moment to share the EPPiC Broadcast with your friends and family who can benefit from serious discussion about the need for parental rights protection in law and policy. And consider making a donation to keep the program on the air. (Like all of the Parental Rights Foundation’s work, the EPPiC Broadcast is completely donor supported.) As always, thank you for standing with us, and with these thought leaders from both sides of the political aisle, in protecting children by empowering parents.

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Mississippi State Law

At Risk

Mississippi does not have a state statute that explicitly defines and protects parental rights as fundamental rights.


Legislative efforts 2017: MS HC2 (Rep. Moore) was an attempt to protect parental rights in the Mississippi Constitution. It was sent to the Constitution Committee, but was not passed out.


Legislative efforts 2014: SB 2199 (Sen. Fillingane) was an effort to preserve parental rights in Mississippi statutory law. It was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee (Division A) on Jan. 10, 2014, but was not passed out.


Legislative efforts 2013: HB 496 (Rep. Chris Brown), SB 2650 (Sen. Fillingane), and HC 90 (Reps. Brown & Formby) were all efforts to protect parental rights at the state level. HB 496 passed committee but was halted before the House on a technicality. SB 2650 stalled in the Senate Judiciary committee. HC 90 passed the House by a vote of 101-11, but stalled in the Senate Rules committee.


Miss. Code Ann. § 93-16-3 is Mississippi's grandparent visitation statute.

  • It applies only to grandparents.
  • It applies only in cases of death or termination of parental rights.
  • It applies only when the grandparent has "established a viable relationship with the child," the parent has "unreasonably denied the grandparent visitation rights with the child," and visitation would be in the child's best interests.


Miss. Code Ann. § 37-13-173 requires parental notification and allows parental opt-out for sex education in the public schools. See also Miss. Code Ann. § 41-79-5(10).


Miss. Code Ann. § 37-23-137(2): "If the parent of a child with a disability refuses consent for the evaluation, the local educational agency may continue to pursue an evaluation by utilizing the due process hearing procedures under IDEA, except to the extent these are not in conflict with Mississippi law relating to parental consent."


Miss. Code Ann. § 41-41-53 requires parental consent before a minor can get an abortion, subject to judicial bypass.



Miss. Code Ann. § 41-42-7 allows doctors to give contraceptive supplies and information to unmarried minors without parental consent when the minor is referred to the doctor by "another physician, a clergyman, a family planning clinic, a school or institution of higher learning, or any agency or instrumentality of this state or any subdivision thereof."

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Mississippi Courts

"Strict Scrutiny" Applied to Parental Rights


However, this precedent is subject to change.


Smith v. Wilson, 90 So. 3d 51 (Miss.2012):

  • "Mississippi's grandparent-visitation statute is narrow, allowing grandparents (not any person) to seek visitation only under certain circumstances." In addition, the "factors set forth in Martin [v. Coop] specifically prohibit a Chancellor from ordering visitation which would interfere with a parent's right to rear his or her children." Therefore, Mississippi's grandparent-visitation statute is distinguishable from the Washington statute truck down in Troxel and is not unconstitutional.
  • "But unfitness is not required to award grandparent visitation." Id. at 60.


D.M. v. D.R., 62 So. 3d 920 (Miss.2011):

  • Granville held that "a state statute regulating visitation rights must meet strict scrutiny before interfering with a parent's right to control a child's upbringing."
  • In all cases involving child custody, including modification, the polestar consideration is the best interest and welfare of the child.
  • Generally, it is presumed that the best interests of the child are served by remaining in the custody of the natural parent.
  • Biological mother was not entitled to the natural parent presumption, in child custody modification proceeding in which paternal grandparents had been awarded custody of child; mother forfeited her right to the natural parent presumption when she voluntarily relinquished custody of child and allowed maternal grandparents to adopt child, and the deaths of maternal grandparents did not “reinstate” mother's parental rights to child.


Woodell v. Parker, 860 So. 2d 781 (Miss.2003):

  • Mississippi's grandparent visitation statute is constitutional.
  • Adoptive parents are not entitled to the Troxel presumption.


Pruitt v. Payne 14 So. 3d 806 (2009Miss.App):

  • There is a general presumption that a parent who is fit will act in the best interest of his or her child; a court must accord some special weight to a fit parent's determination of a child's best interests.
  • Parents with custody have a paramount right, protected by the Due Process Clause, to control the environment, physical, social, and emotional situations to which their children are exposed.
  • Generally, a court will not grant visitation rights to grandparents or third parties over the objection of a fit custodial parent.
  • In Mississippi, a finding of unfitness is necessary to award custody to a third party over a natural parent.