Texas Shame
Pregnant adult women held in captivity until childbirth so that the state can take possession of the baby. Think this can’t happen in the US? In Texas? Think again.
Texas Child Protective Services said today at a custody hearing for a child born to one of the YFZ Ranch children that the agency no longer believes the mother is a minor.
Today’s custody hearing was continued to Friday to allow attorneys to prepare. The mother will need a new attorney because the attorneys representing her also are representing other minors and were concerned about conflicts of interest.
Knowing full well that this mother is an adult, what will the state attempt to do when the hearing resumes?
When the hearing resumes, state officials said, they will continue to seek custody of the infant.
Think this is an isolated case? Think again. It happened again yesterday. A 22 year old woman with two children was held in captivity until she gave birth.
A mother taken from a polygamist sect and being held as a minor in state custody gave birth Monday to a baby boy who was immediately taken into child-protective custody.
The new mother has claimed she is 22 and has filed a writ of habeas corpus to be freed from state custody.
Her 24 year old husband received an emergency court order to stop the state from whisking the child off to a foster home.
State District Judge Orlinda Naranjo issued an injunction that temporarily halted CPS’ plan to move the mother, the newborn and the couple’s two other children, ages 2 and 3, to San Antonio within hours of the delivery at an Austin birthing center.
The judge said the mother and the three youngsters will remain in Travis County until after a hearing Thursday on Mr. Jessop’s request that another district judge in Austin, Darlene Byrne, order his wife and children released from state care.
So where did CPS put the woman and her newborn for the night, hours after the birth?
Because CPS had no foster care placement in Travis County that was suitable for the newborn, the mother and child were poised to spend the night in a CPS office, a lawyer for the husband said.
“This woman has been removed from the birthing center with a brand new baby boy and is now sitting in the offices of CPS because they don’t have anywhere else to put her,” Ms. Matassarin said.
Why would the state not release a 22 year old woman?
Rod Parker, an attorney and spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, accused state officials of deliberately holding a pregnant mother they to knew to be of legal age so they could take her baby into custody upon birth.
“They just wanted to keep the mother in custody until they could get the baby,” Parker said.
In a million years, you could not have convinced me that this would be allowed to take place in the United States of America, much less the State of Texas. Until I witnessed it happening before my very eyes.
Think it can’t happen to you? Think again.