Most underage girls conceived
On Monday, CPS announced that almost 60 percent of the underage girls living on the Eldorado ranch either have children or are pregnant.
Of the 53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 who are in state custody, 31 either have given birth or were expecting, Azar said.
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 the sect’s girls is believed to have a legal marriage under state law.
A number of girls first listed as adults were reclassified as minors as Child Protective Services, a division of Family and Protective Services, moved the children last week from a mass shelter in San Angelo to foster care facilities around the state, including some near San Marcos, in central Texas.
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.
All the children are supposed to get individual hearings before June 5 to help determine if they’ll stay in state custody or if their parents may be able to take steps to regain custody. The first hearings have been set for May 19.
No one has been charged since the raid, which was prompted by a series of calls to a domestic abuse hot line, purportedly from a 16-year-old girl forced into a marriage recognized only by the sect with a man three times her age. That girl has not been found and authorities are investigating whether the call was a hoax.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24388249
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The above is interesting. As I pointed out earlier, these "fundies" avoid the anti polygamy laws by not getting married. They are "spiritual" spouses which means they were "married" by their church but not in a way recognized by law.
Now, this "end around" technique to avoid the polygamy laws is going to bite them in the backside because now the pregnant girls aged 16-just under 18 are pregnant by statutory rape. They could have married their "spiritual husbands" with the consent of their parents (which they did under "fundie" church rules) but they are not legally married.
So, now all of the 16-17 (not quite 18) year old girls have been raped/abused according to the statutory rape laws...
So, the "fundies" escaped the law on a technicality and are now getting slammed by the laws under similar technicalities...