California just handed the state a power that should chill every mother and father in America. With AB 495, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, any adult who claims to be a child’s relative — even without proof — can immediately act as that child’s “caregiver.” No parent signature. No verification. Not even a courtesy phone call.

Jonathan Keller of California Family Council said it plainly:

“AB 495 strips parents of their constitutional rights and hands them over to unverified strangers.”

Legal analysts have been even more blunt, calling it “a child predator’s dream bill” and warning that it effectively legalizes a soft form of state-sanctioned kidnapping.

Under the bill, a single unchecked affidavit can enroll a child in school, authorize medical treatment, and grant an unrelated adult functional custody — all while the real parents remain the “legal guardians” only on paper.

But California isn’t blazing a trail — it’s following one.

Oregon Blazing the Trail

Parents in Oregon have already seen where this philosophy leads.

Alyssa Johnson, an Oregon mother, described the moment her teenage daughter vanished into a web of youth shelters, programs, and “affirming” host homes — all triggered because the teen said she “felt unsafe” over a disagreement about identity. There was no abuse, no neglect, and no evidence of harm. But under ORS 419B.150, “feeling unsafe” was enough.

From that moment forward, Johnson was cut out completely. She received no updates, no address, and no cooperation from police or agencies. She couldn’t even file a missing-person report since the state knew of the child’s whereabouts.

Her daughter, meanwhile, was given access to housing, phones, food benefits, counseling, and medical interventions that would ordinarily require parental involvement.

Johnson concluded that what she was witnessing wasn’t just bureaucracy but a coordinated system that profits from separating children from their families. As she wrote, “This is a business model. A type of trafficking in a new form.” Programs were paid. Clinics were paid. Foster hosts were paid. The only people without any voice were the parents.

California’s AB 495 echoes the very mechanisms Oregon has been using for years: systems that treat the state as the real parent and reduce mothers and fathers to bystanders in their own children’s lives.

A Swedish Nightmare

Across the Atlantic, Christian parents Daniel and Bianca Samson have been living this nightmare in Sweden for over two years.

Their ordeal began when their eldest daughter made a false abuse claim at school — a claim she later recanted.

Authorities labeled the Samsons “religious extremists” simply because they attended church regularly and set normal boundaries on clothing and makeup. Even after completing state-mandated parenting courses and receiving clean evaluations from therapists, the parents were denied reunification.

As a result, both of their daughters were taken. The girls have been shuffled from foster home to foster home and separated from each other by hundreds of miles. They are showing clear signs of emotional trauma, developmental regression, and distress due to their continued displacement.

The Samsons exhausted every legal channel and have now taken their case to the European Court of Human Rights, citing violations of family life and religious freedom.

Their experience shows what happens when state agencies redefine normal parenting as “extremism” — religious instruction and every protective instinct of a mother or father becomes suspect.

A Clear and Present Threat

Advocacy groups like California Family Council are urging parents everywhere to stay vigilant: update school records, issue written directives limiting who may act for their child, and actively support legal challenges that defend parental rights at their foundation.

If a government can decide it knows your child better than you do, then the very idea of family — natural, biblical, and God-given — is on the line.