The other night I watched Larry King's interview of the women from the FLDS group in Texas. The next night he commented that many of his viewers were writing in to ask "where are the fathers?" Because genetic testing is already being done on the children in an attempt to determine which children are biologically related to each other (foster care tries very hard to keep biological siblings together) it occurs to me that DNA testing for the men could be a double-edged sword.
Everything I see on the news suggests the fathers very much want their children returned to them. Because of the confusion about which child belongs with which parents DNA testing will be done to match them correctly before they can be released back to their parents. However, if the DNA testing also reveals that a man is the biological father of a child born to an underage minor he's in some serious trouble with the law. If this is the case, then even if the children are returned to their mothers, there could be men facing hard time behind bars. Additionally, if a father is not identified, his parental rights can be terminated on grounds of abandonment.
Having sat through a number of hearings in family court I know from personal experience how drawn-out the process is, and that every objection means another delay and perhaps another continuance. While attorneys hash out the legalities, the children remain in the custody of the state. A continuance usually means scheduling the next court date a month or more away. Meanwhile the clock is ticking (remember the court has a year and a half and then must make a decision).
The sad fact is that when parents do not work within the system by doing what the court requires, the parents find themselves living out the rest of their lives without their children. And, to raise the stakes, when parents have parental rights terminated for multiple children, the state takes an immediate interest in any future children born to them. If circumstances are unchanged from the circumstances which led to the removal of the original children, the state will remove the new children and often fast-track them to adoption.
Once again, I'm not getting into a discussion about religious persecution here. I'm trying to offer some insight on how the court is likely to respond to the facts before it.
