From Deseret News archives:
FLDS mother gives birth under guard
Rod Parker, a Salt Lake City attorney who is acting as a spokesman for the FLDS Church, said Pamela Jeffs was in labor today at the Central Texas Medical Center in San Marcos, about 30 miles northeast of San Antonio. He contends she was 18, although Texas child welfare authorities believe she is underage.
"Either they kept her because she was about to give birth to a child they want to take, or they've reclassified her as a minor," Parker told the Deseret News on Tuesday.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services said the baby boy is healthy and the mother is doing well.
"The child will be placed with his mother and both will be in the temporary custody of CPS," the agency said on its Web site.
Texas authorities raided the "Yearning For Zion" Ranch on April 3, taking custody of 463 children. Child welfare officials believe the children have either been abused or are in danger of abuse because of the FLDS Church's practice of underage or plural marriages.
Texas child protective services officials have said that 31 of the 53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 have children, are mothers of children, pregnant or both. That group includes those who claim to be adults. Those numbers are in dispute by FLDS members.
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
