CCHR Highlights Decades-Long Fight for Parental Rights and Psychiatric Drug Protections

LOS ANGELES, CA, July 31, 2026 /24-7PressRelease/ — Citizens Commission on Human Rights International, the preeminent mental health industry watchdog that for decades has demanded full informed consent for antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs—as well as black-box warnings about their serious risks—reminds parents of a federal law the group helped secure in 2004. The Prohibition on Mandatory Medication Amendment prevents schools from forcing parents to place children on psychiatric drugs as a condition of attending school.[1]

The amendment, now part of the Code of Federal Regulations, was necessary because some school personnel routinely coerced parents through threats of expulsion, Child Protective Services involvement, or criminal charges of medical neglect.[2] Many families watched their children suffer severe side effects; some children and teens died by suicide while taking the drugs.

Simultaneously, CCHR pressed for disclosure of the suicide risks of SSRI antidepressants. Government Reform Committee Chairman Congressman Dan Burton praised CCHR’s efforts at the time: “Through united action, effective education and advocacy, CCHR has helped to bring about critically needed healthcare reform.” A senior staffer on the Committee added: “The most important impact CCHR has made was the increased awareness on Capitol Hill—that we are forcing medication through schools.”

The long fight for disclosure and protection, including from CCHR, parental groups, attorneys, health researchers, and whistleblowers, is now reflected in recent government actions. In May 2026, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced efforts to curb psychiatric drug prescribing and to assist those wishing to withdraw safely from these drugs, especially antidepressants—a clear call for deprescribing.[3] On July 24, 2026, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo issued the “Avoidance of Psychotropic Pharmacotherapy in Children Age 5–17: Guidance Statement,” stating: “The State Surgeon General recommends against the use of psychotropic drugs in children for treatment of mental health conditions….” In 2024, the UK government had already called for deprescribing and reduced use of antidepressants and other psychotropics.

At the height of the 2004 federal law reform, a Roll Call article noted CCHR’s role in bringing these issues to Congress and observed that the psychiatric lobby was caught off-guard by the legislation’s support. The need for the protection grew directly from CCHR’s work documenting cases of parents coerced into drugging their children with powerful mind-altering drugs under threat of school exclusion or medical neglect charges. Working with AbleChild.org and the National Foundation of Women Legislators, CCHR helped pass similar prohibitions in 12 states, building momentum for the federal effort.

CCHR was the first patient advocacy group to pressure the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to convene its Psychopharmacological Drugs Advisory Committee (PDAC) public hearing on September 20, 1991, to investigate antidepressant-induced suicide and violence. Dozens of patients and family members that CCHR assisted gave firsthand testimony. Despite this evidence, the majority of the panel—many with financial ties to pharmaceutical companies—voted against any label change. It would take another 13 years of dedicated work by CCHR, antidepressant consumers, parents, attorneys, and medical doctors before the FDA added the black-box warnings for suicidal ideation on SSRIs.

Celebrities such as the late actresses Kirstie Alley and Kelly Preston, both of whom served on CCHR International’s board of Commissioners, spoke out in favor of the federal law and testified before the Florida state legislature on the issue in 2005. CCHR Florida continued to raise the alarm, especially about children being drugged while subject to Baker Act involuntary detainment in psychiatric facilities.

Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR International, said: “The risk data was always available for anyone willing to listen to patients or press for the facts, and thanks to those who did, there is a cultural shift in the recognition of psychotropic drug risks and the need to be able to safely withdraw from them. They should never be forced onto any child or individual.”

The Florida Surgeon General guidance also reinforced another CCHR initiative dating to its formation in 1969 and its Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights: the right to, and need for, a physical exam before initiating a treatment plan. The guidance further recommends first completing a full physical examination, including laboratory tests for nutritional disorders, endocrine disorders, heavy metals, mold exposure, and blood disorders. As far back as 1982, CCHR campaigned for Senate Bill 929 in California, which established a pilot project to provide medical evaluation of people in public psychiatric hospitals.[4] CCHR was represented on the advisory committee established to oversee the pilot. The findings, officially published in 1989, showed that many patients studied had a physical disease that had been undiagnosed by mental health professionals and defined the medical tests that should be conducted.

For more than four decades, CCHR—established by the Church of Scientology and professor of psychiatry Dr. Thomas Szasz—has stood as the independent mental health watchdog fighting for parental and children’s rights and true informed consent. Those seeking accountability and protection from coercive psychiatric practices can report them to CCHR International.

Sources:

[1] https://www.cchrint.org/issues/childmentaldisorders/prohibition-on-mandatory-medication/, § 300.174 Prohibition on mandatory medication, eCFR, 24 July 2026, https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-34/subtitle-B/chapter-III/part-300/subpart-B/subject-group-ECFRad6c4bc24acb01c/section-300.174

[2] https://www.cchrint.org/2022/04/18/parents-rights-form-provides-opt-out-for-school-mental-health-screening/, “Protecting Children: The Use of Medication in our Nation’s Schools and H/R/ 170, Child Medication Safety Act of 2003,” House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Education Reform, Committee on Education and the Workforce, 6 May 2003, https://www.congress.gov/108/chrg/CHRG-108hhrg87723/CHRG-108hhrg87723.pdf

[3] https://www.cchrint.org/2026/05/11/hhs-announces-major-push-to-address-psychiatric-drug-risks/, “HHS Launches MAHA Action Plan to Curb Psychiatric Overprescribing,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 4 May 2026, https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/hhs-launches-maha-action-plan-curb-psychiatric-overprescribing.html

[4] “NSH Studies Patient Diagnoses,” Undated/unnamed newspaper, circa July 1982; Lorrin M. Koran, M.D., et al., “Medical Evaluation of Psychiatric Patients,” Archives of General Psychiatry, Vol. 46, Aug. 1989, p. 733

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is an international mental health industry watchdog, established by the Church of Scientology, which had helped enact more than 190 worldwide reforms that protect the public from abuse.

—
For the original version of this press release, please visit 24-7PressRelease.com here