April 28, 2008 · More than 400 children remain in the care of the state after reports of child sexual abuse prompted a raid on a Texas polygamist compound. Authorities maintain that they are protecting the kids, but families argue there was no evidence of abuse. Guests and callers weigh in on what's best for the children.
Guests:
Howard Berkes, NPR rural affairs correspondent
Rodney Parker, attorney based in Salt Lake City, Utah; spokesman for the families whose children are in state custody
John Sampson, professor of law at the University of Texas; teaches the Children's Rights Clinic, which provides legal representation for abused and neglected children in Travis County
Jack Downey, president and CEO of The Children's Shelter in San Antonio, Texas; caring for 22 children from the Eldorado compound
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31 of 53 teen girls at FLDS ranch are pregnant or had baby
By MICHELLE ROBERTS – 1 hour ago 3:59 PM 4/28/2008
Tracing the Polygamists' Family Tree
Sunday, Apr. 20, 2008 By HILARY HYLTON
...Four surnames dominate the list: Jeffs (relatives of Warren Jeffs, the sect's imprisoned leader and "prophet"), Jessop, Barlow and Steed.
In the 1930s, two families, the Jessops and the Barlows, settled the area around Hildale, Utah, along the border with Arizona, where they founded the FDLS — and began handing down to their descendants a recessive gene for a severe form of mental retardation called Fumarase Deficiency...
...Families whose children are affected often avail themselves of state-funded medical care, consistent with the FLDS philosophy of seeking government aid — despite their suspicion of government — which they call "bleeding the Beast."
...The FLDS community, by and large, rejects the idea that Fumarase Deficiency is caused by genes, according to Tarby...
Birth defect is plaguing children in FLDS towns
Fumarase Deficiency afflicts 20, is linked to marriages of close kin
By John Hollenhorst
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2006 11:36 p.m. MST
Bust up in Bountiful (update)
CBC
More Clarity About Abuse, Intermarriage, Child Breeders, and the Fundamentalist Church of Later Day Saints
Posted by Sara Robinson, Orcinus at 2:51 PM on April 25, 2008.
Polygamy in Canada: Legal and Social Implications for Women and Children – A Collection of Policy Research Reports
Barf.
Update 12:07 PM 4/30/2008
Official: History of injuries found in polygamist sect kids
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Investigators have discovered a history of physical injuries, including broken bones, in children taken from a polygamist sect's ranch compound, the chief of state protective services told legislators Wednesday...
..."When asked, women and children would change their names and ages," he said...
...Church officials have denied that any children were abused at the ranch and say the state's actions are a form of religious persecution.
They also dispute the count of teen mothers, saying at least some are likely adults.
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