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Top conservative group takes parents' rights fight to Capitol Hill, expected to meet with Mike Johnson
By Elizabeth Elkind
Published March 18, 2026
FIRST ON FOX: A top conservative organization advocating parents' rights is descending on Capitol Hill Wednesday to meet with both Republicans and Democrats on the subject of transgender issues and other agenda items.
Moms for Liberty is taking its "parents pledge" to Congress, with group members expected to sit down with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and others in a bid to grow support for its movement to define what rights parents have over their children while in school and other places outside their immediate control.
"Moms for Liberty brought 100 members from across 20 states to Capitol Hill," the group's co-founder and CEO Tina Descovich told Fox News Digital.
The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 10, 2026. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
She said members of Congress would join President Donald Trump in signing their pledge, which Descovich called "a commonsense promise to the American people that you support their rights."
The pledge states, "I pledge to honor the fundamental rights of parents, including, but not limited to the right to direct the education, medical care, and moral upbringing of their children. I pledge to advance policies that strengthen parental involvement and decision-making, increase transparency, defend against government overreach, and secure parental rights at all levels of government."
Speaker Mike Johnson pauses for questions from reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 3, 2026. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)
Among the group's legislative priorities, Fox News Digital was told, are to eliminate school-based health clinics, oppose any policy that circumvents parental authority in schools, and require schools to give parents full access to curriculum, lesson plans, evaluations and learning standards.
On the issue of transgender policies, Moms for Liberty is pushing to maintain sex-specific spaces like school sports and restrooms, as well as the biological definition of sex and promoting pronoun usage consistent with students and staff members' sex.
Tina Descovich speaks during the Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors national summit in Philadelphia on June 30, 2023. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Moms for Liberty was established in 2021 to fight COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on students.
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Since then, it's ballooned into a nationwide group with multiple chapters across the country.
And their meeting with Johnson on Wednesday is notable in that it's a sign of their influence and Republicans' focus on culture war issues like parental rights, even as they fight an uphill battle to keep control during the November midterms.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/top-conservative-group-takes-parents-rights-fight-capitol-hill-expected-meet-mike-johnson