Reader comments
FLDS mother declared an adult
71 comments | Read story
Of course she's not an adult until Texas authorities certify that she's an adult!
What does this say about the other cases where Texas is insisting pregnant FLDS women are lieing and are really underage? How many adult women do you think they are holding till Texas authorities can certify they are adults?
And it doesn't matter if they are adults or not anyway, they just get to go through their pregnancy knowing the state is just waiting to take their unborn child.
Way to go Texas! Your my hero!
Who cares what "standard procedure" is? This is by no means a standard case. The women are victims and they are being treated like criminals. I deplore what is going on at YFZ ranch but it is barbaric to take newborns away from their mothers because they are part of a strange religion. Let the women and children be! Lock up the men!
For the second time in my life, Texas is giving me a lesson on what pure evil is.
Why isn't CPS taking inner city newborns from their mothers who aren't providing for them properly in their minds?
Do you think it's appropriate to confine the newborn and the mother in a CPS office? That hardly sounds like a decent location for a newborn. Can we charge CPS with abuse?
It shouldn't be. The CPS system needs a major overhaul. The sort of thing happening here--the governor using CPS to destroy a religion--is unconstitutional and un-American.
I believe the people most likely to care are the other expectant FLDS women. Whenever CPS has a standard procedure it is much harder to fight.
1. Cruel and unusual punishment for parents and baby.
2. Guilt established by mere association, no real evidence of danger for the baby, no real trial, no innocence unless proven guilty; etc.
I do not abide by 'child brides' or polygamy, but I believe this mother and baby deserve not to be separated.
Where is the lawyer? I would be immediately filing on this.
In the second birth, CPS expected to move the mother and infant back to San Angelo where Barbara Walther would put the infant into CPS custody. The husband is trying to get his wife, infant and two children out of custody by showing that the wife is an adult and they are a monogamous family. He got a restraining order against CPS that kept the wife in Austin, a liberal area.
I believe the plan all along was to get the child.
with the woman identified as a child CPS had custody in order to have easy access to the newborn.
They knew she was of age....it was just a manuver to skirt the system......this whole affair is an excuse to bust a cult without the normal restrictions placed on law enforcement.....use the CPS
In return they can get their families back. They are stubborn and will need to take some drastic measures to keep their children. Hopefully someone in FLDS power will receive a revelation soon to take responsibilty for their situation. All religions have history of adapting to society's will. They can adapt too.
The Monarchy, or the Rightful Steward and Owner of all children, has the sole discretion when it comes to the often abstract notion of child "protection." If there is any question in the matter, it's best to take the children away. Something "might" happen to them.
After all, it's not like mothers have a fundamental human right to their own flesh-and-blood offspring (and vise-versa). Right?
Ah, how fervently we do believe. Unless we legislate public schools, vaccinations, 3-a-day, mainstream synthetic medicine, and secularized religion, we risk losing the Royal Culture, the One True Way!
Thomas Jefferson is turning over in his grave.
Judged by some standard, maybe our plans for other people's lives are better and safer than their own plans. But the whole point of America was to allow individuals and communities the liberty to figure all that out for themselves without government meddling. It lends human meaning to mere existence.
If there is law-breaking, let's demand more than prank calls as evidence. Suspicion and mistrust aren't good enough.
Seriously, some of you are just as bad as the religious wackos that you persecute.
C'mon Gal50 and others who defend Texas CPS. How far will you watch these authorities go down this unethical path before you become the least bit quesy? I've been sick to my stomach for the last few weeks.
The really amazing thing to me is that the vast majority of the good citizens of Texas haven't stormed the court houses in outrage at the unAmerican activities of the authorities. Patriotism must be dead in Texas.
I think that slave owners used to justify their ownership of other human beings on the basis of it being for the welfare of the slaves. The current arguements about the supposed welfare of the children sound remarkably similar and equally hollow and stupid.
If there were crimes committed by anyone FLDS, prosecute them according to the law. Otherwise, bug off and pay up. The temple that the coming settlement(s) will pay for should really be grand.
these are questions that need answers
If I refuse to pay for my daughters and sons to go to college, should the state take all my children away?
If I refuse to stop teaching my kids something you or the state doesn't like, should the state take all my children away?
I agree with some of your points - people should be required to obey the law. But you go to far.
* Every 10 minutes a teen in Texas gets pregnant
* Every 10 hours a 14 year old gets pregnant
* Every 3 hours a 15 year old gets pregnant
* Every 1.5 hours a 16 year old gets pregnant
* Every 52 minutes a 17 year old gets pregnant
* Every 10 minutes a teen gives birth
* Every 48 minutes a teen has an abortion
Where is Texas housing those 52,560 babies that are born to teenagers - every year? Surely, by law, they have the obligation to protect those babies. Surely the people of Texas won't sit back and let those mothers keep their children. Surely Nevada's Senator Reid will demand that something be done to stop that kind of illegal nonsense, just as he has demanded that the FLDS be stopped. After all, if people in Nevada want to have sex with a young lady to whom they are not married, they have to pay for it!
Where are our elected Congressmen when the rights of the FLDS are being trampled? Those FLDS mothers and their children are CITIZENS! Those Congressmen have sworn an oath to protect ALL citizens!
This does not make any sense! If she was a person, suffering from abuse one minute, she cannot be the abuser the next. Give her her baby back!
She is the 'victim of CPS' on both counts.
Where have you been. Texas does not believe the Drivers License or birth certificates!
If you look like a minor, you are a minor. Thats it.
Lies, unethical practices and disregard for constitutional rights do not raise my esteem for Texas CPS or the Texas State court system. I suggest that anyone who is the least bit different think seriously about moving out of Texas.
Are you game for that? If not, then your argument is a house of cards.
"The Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act was signed into law on July 8, 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln. Sponsored by Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont, the act banned plural marriage and limited church and non-profit ownership in any territory of the United States to $50,000.[1] The act targeted the Mormon church ownership in the Utah territory. The measure had no funds allocated for enforcement, and President Lincoln chose to leave the Mormons alone."
If Abraham Lincoln choose to leave the Mormons alone, the Texas authorities could choose to leave the FLDS alone as well. But they haven't, and have sent the CPS after them in a desperate and poorly planned witch hunt. Their case is becoming unraveled bit by bit, and all of the innocent children have been abused as a result of their actions, and in spite of the fact that CPS on shaky constitutional grounds to begin with.
We'd be taking a way stronger moral stand to let Hef build a playboy mansion in provo and call it a religious compound than to support these thugs.
Some of them folks is thought to be strange, a tad weird based on today's standards, but I bet we are a heck of a lot weirder in their eyes too. Will Rogers used to say, "All I know is what I read in the papers," but that logic don't work no more because most the stuff in the papers ain't based on truth, only on selling a story. So if we all put our prejudices aside and wait for the outcome of this sad news story, maybe we all are in a surprise.
So how 'bout we all work on cleaning up our own back yards afore we start worrying about the neighbor�s. I tell you one thing, I see way more teens screwing around and drugging and stealing and killing babies than those FLDS folks could ever dream about. There�s more teenaged hookers in Dallas hopping old men than you�d care to know about. Now there�s some serious problems we ought to be tackling.
Now let�s get back to basics folks and rush those babies back to their mamas.
It's because of insensitive foster parents like you who care more about "standard procedures" than human beings that I could never think that those kids will be better in foster homes than with their own mothers. A foster mom could never compare to a mom. Return those children to their real mothers!!!!!
Add your comment
Comments are monitored. Any comments found to be abusive, offensive, off-topic, misrepresentative, more than 200 words or containing URLs will not be posted.
E-mail address: For internal use only. We may want to contact you to publish your comment (not your e-mail address) in the newspaper or for a separate story idea.
- Halle Berry to receive Lansing award 11:32 a.m.
- Travoltas have 'own way' of coping 11:31 a.m.
- Rock Hall events salute Janis Joplin 11:30 a.m.
- Arrest warrant dropped for Quaids 11:28 a.m.
- Perry: Band not breaking up 11:27 a.m.
- Laurent's objects to be auctioned 11:26 a.m.
- Rucker up for two CMA awards 11:22 a.m.
- Glamour mag's Women of the Year 11:19 a.m.
- 'Aha' suit against Winfrey settled 11:15 a.m.
- Disney studio executive exits 11:10 a.m.
- Utah group finds homes for orphans
- Soccer MVPs know how to win
- Senators want food tax restored
- Jazz blow big lead, hang on
- Matheson gets no thanks from GOP
- Alta's Ohai is Ms. Soccer 2009
- Mitchell seeks to block witnesses
- Price injured; Miles has cast removed
- Y. tight ends talented tandem
- Utes get extra motivation
- House passes health care bill
239 - TCU showdown has big implications
184 - Lobo suspended
182 - Cougars crush hapless Cowboys
155 - Utah Jazz fall apart against Kings
131 - Senators want food tax restored
128 - TCU 4th in AP poll; U. 16th, Y. 22nd
119 - Thousands protest health bill
119 - RSL rallies to advance
103 - No 'backlash' for pioneers, gays analogy
102
Meghan McCain, the daughter of former presidential candidate John...
I've known Mike Lee for several years, and he will wow the delegates as they...
I am a byu fan. am i bashing utah, no. do i want tcu and BYU to cream UTAH,...
LOWER the Cost and more people will go to school. It is really simple....it...
yes, gdog3, the energy isn't there. if conditioning techniques are suspect,...
Conyers is a hero. To every freedom-hating individual in this nation. He is...
that they should consider what percentage of people in the US or Utah are...
@Congrats Not necessarily. 22% voter turnout is pretty typical. Which...
If, like GWB says, that Health Insurance kills people, there should be a...
Just so you know Kansas is one of the top 5 basketball schools in the...
There are many players that are overlooked because their teams did not make...


The state is going to hold her child?? Based on what?? There can't be any possible "abuse" of this baby.
This gets harder to stomach as the case develops.