Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
5
Birth control ordered for pregnant retarded woman
MEMPHIS --A Memphis judge has ordered long-term birth control for a 33-year-old woman who is mentally retarded and pregnant with her 10th child.
Juvenile Court Referee Claudia Haltom signed a court order Friday that agrees with the recommendation of Loretta McGee's state-appointed therapist.
McGee's mother, Dorothy Wise, and her lawyer, Christine Stephens, want her permanently sterilized after she has her baby in October.
Officials say McGee's first nine children, who range in age f
om 4 to 17, cost the state thousands each month. The children have been before Juvenile Court for delinquent or unruly behavior 36 times in five years. Four have mental retardation.
When McGee showed up pregnant at a Juvenile Court
hearing for one of her children Tuesday, the birth control issue came up.
McGee has said she wants to be sterilized, but some civil rights activists worry that she won't understand the court order and her right to choose.
''The suggestion in and of itself coming from the court is coercive,'' said Hedy Weinberg, head of the American Civil Liberties Union in Tennessee.
A judge can't force someone to take long-term birth control or be sterilized for her caretakers' convenience. There must be a medical necessity --if the mother's life is endangered, for example.
If McGee protested, her mother could have her declared incompetent in
Probate Court and a forced sterilization could occur.
Wise can't imagine it would come to that. She said her daughter can't take care of herself, much less her children. She rarely s
peak
s, but when she does, it's to ask for something she wants.
McGee's kids have different fathers. None has contact with his child.
Wise
said her daughter has trouble swallowing birth control pills and has tried Depo-Provera injections but hated the side effects.
Wise cares for McGee and seven of her children. The two children she can't control are in state custody. Wise also takes care of a son with mental retardation.
''The good Lord's got to be helping me out,'' Wise said.
*************
What's that smell?!?
T.N.B.
Birth control ordered for pregnant retarded woman
MEMPHIS --A Memphis judge has ordered long-term birth control for a 33-year-old woman who is mentally retarded and pregnant with her 10th child.
Juvenile Court Referee Claudia Haltom signed a court order Friday that agrees with the recommendation of Loretta McGee's state-appointed therapist.
McGee's mother, Dorothy Wise, and her lawyer, Christine Stephens, want her permanently sterilized after she has her baby in October.
Officials say McGee's first nine children, who range in age f
om 4 to 17, cost the state thousands each month. The children have been before Juvenile Court for delinquent or unruly behavior 36 times in five years. Four have mental retardation.
When McGee showed up pregnant at a Juvenile Court
hearing for one of her children Tuesday, the birth control issue came up.
McGee has said she wants to be sterilized, but some civil rights activists worry that she won't understand the court order and her right to choose.
''The suggestion in and of itself coming from the court is coercive,'' said Hedy Weinberg, head of the American Civil Liberties Union in Tennessee.
A judge can't force someone to take long-term birth control or be sterilized for her caretakers' convenience. There must be a medical necessity --if the mother's life is endangered, for example.
If McGee protested, her mother could have her declared incompetent in
Probate Court and a forced sterilization could occur.
Wise can't imagine it would come to that. She said her daughter can't take care of herself, much less her children. She rarely s
peak
s, but when she does, it's to ask for something she wants.
McGee's kids have different fathers. None has contact with his child.
Wise
said her daughter has trouble swallowing birth control pills and has tried Depo-Provera injections but hated the side effects.
Wise cares for McGee and seven of her children. The two children she can't control are in state custody. Wise also takes care of a son with mental retardation.
''The good Lord's got to be helping me out,'' Wise said.
*************
What's that smell?!?
T.N.B.
