Posted on 04/28/2008 5:27:59 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
31 of 53 teen girls at FLDS ranch are pregnant or had baby
By MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer 2 minutes ago
More than half the teen girls taken from a polygamist compound in west Texas have children or are pregnant, state officials said Monday.
A total of 53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 are in state custody after a raid 3 1/2 weeks ago at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. Of those girls, 31 either have children or are pregnant, said Child Protective Services spokesman Darrell Azar. Two are pregnant now, CPS officials have said in court; it was unclear whether either of those two already have children.
"It shows you a pretty distinct pattern, that it was pretty pervasive," he said.
State officials took custody of all 463 children at the ranch controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, saying a pattern of teen girls forced into underage "spiritual" marriages and sex with much older men created an unsafe environment for the sect's children.
Under Texas law, children under the age of 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult. A girl can get married with parental permission at 16, but none of these girls is believed to have a legal marriage under state law.
State officials said earlier that they had found girls who were pregnant or had children of their own at the ranch, but they had not provided more than rough estimates until Monday.
Church officials have denied that any children were abused at the ranch and say the state's actions are a form of religious persecution.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“We had some illegals killed in a car wreck near here last year. the wife was 14, the HUSBAND was 13.”
Well considering they were illegal my guess is the US didn’t recognize them as being in a legal marriage either.
If you don't want the government taking your children don't put them on welfare and raise them to be raped by old sleazes who will impregnate them to put them on welfare and live off the checks.
Three cheers for the Great State of Texas!
*How do these statistics differ from some of the Democrat-stronghold inner cities?*
Link to the city and statistics ?
Amazing- Where are all the “This is nothing but religious persecution, give these children back to their parents!” posters? There were quite a few last week, and now they’re GONE for some reason!
FR: Your article index title said that “31 of 53 girls had babies or were pregnant by Michelle Roberts”.
A busy person this Michelle Roberts is. Sure its isn’t “Michael Roberts”? Makes more sense.
When the children were taken it was yelled from the rafters that many/over 25/35/half of the teens were pregnant when CPS workers went in, some/many as young as 12. Now the story is changing, the question I have is WHY?
There is a large group here at FR that certainly are, as you pointed out, “falling right in line” swallowing every rumor and “what if”, “I heard” etc. report made available.
They'll be here soon. Prepare yourself to be called a baby killer, child molester, rapist and defender of the Flds. They do not listen to reason and have become fanatical wild-eyed hysterical “Mormon-haters”, even though they can't absorb the fact that Flds are NOT LDS. They hate me for trying to point that fact out to them.
>>”Do we care about the precedents being set? We’d better.”<<
Full agreement with your statement above!! This group has no time to listen to reason and are ready to hang every person that has a penis. I believe they not only hate Mormons (LDS), but hate men in general, if you know what I mean.
Good luck.
Perhaps they’re all hiding from the Texas authorities?
I was out on my own, supporting myself at 16, married at 17. My husband was on his own at 16, in the Army at 17; Vietnam when he was 18. I think we are regressing. This attitude might explain the articles I have seen lately about 30-50 *children* living with their parents, because they can’t make it on their own...I agree 17 is not a child, even 16 is not really a child.
DNA testing will determine who the youth belong to.
It wasn’t CPS that went in there first. It was welfare fraud investigators.
They have 30-50 children living with their parents because there is one father and many mothers. Get it?
And at 16 how was it you were out on your own and supporting yourself?
I totally understand that- but that has nothing to do with what I posted.
Um yes it does. DNA testing will determine parentage and age.
According to media (I want that to be clear because they might well be to blame for my confusion-wouldn’t be the first time the media has minced facts) the reason the authorities got a second search warrant and the reason given for taking all the children was because the authorities that went in on the first warrant SAW a lot of pregnant teen girls. Numbers of 25+ were mentioned in different articles and this has been given as the main reason all the children were taken by many in the media and here on FR. Lawyers for FLDS members said it wasn’t true- only two or three teens were pregnant- well I took that with a grain of salt because it came from a lawyer- BUT Now AP is saying there are TWO teens that are pregnant. It doesn’t matter who went in there- CPS, Welfare Fraud- though I read it was CPS- what matters is how many pregnant teens did they see & was this the reason they were able to get second warrant and reason they were able to take all the children?
I have never heard where DNA can confirm age- do you have a source for that?
Welfare fraud investigators don’t need search warrants.
A MD can determine age. The DNA is to determine who the mother and father are.
No it was not.
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