Eldorado, USA - Abandoning their religion and husbands may be the only way that FLDS mothers will be reunited with their children. Texas official issued new rules, Thursday, that dictate what the mothers will have to do before the state will return the 464 children.
The plan says that the mothers will have to prove that they have provided the children with “a home free of persons who have, or will abuse the children.”
Texas officials consider many polygamist husbands as abusers.
On top of that, Texas officials will have to know every person living in any building where any of the children live. This would make customary polygamist communal housing impossible.
FLDS Attorney, Rod Parker says that “the rules are subject to interpretation by Child Protective Services (CPS) in a manner that makes it impossible for these people to live on the ranch.”
To hammer their point even harder, Texas officials told FLDS communities that if they don’t cooperate, the court could “terminate parental rights” and “appoint a conservator with authority to consent to each child’s adoption.”
“Those terms are going to be defined, ultimately, by Texas CPS, and what Texas CPS says is a safe environment or appropriate education, exclude participation in this religion,” Parker said.
The initial call, that alleged that a 16-year-old girl was beaten and raped by FLDS member Dale Barlow, has never been identified, and is believed by many to have been a prank. Still, authorities are convinced that there is a repeated pattern of abuse on FLDS compounds.
Authorities point out that many of the teenage girls in custody were pregnant, some as young as 13 years old. They also say there is a conspiracy of secrecy within the mothers. They say that FLDS moms will not cooperate with identifying their children.
Authorities also claimed that FLDS boys had signs of broken bones and that they had possibly been sexually abuse as well.
Now, for the first time, the state is talking about lost boys who have allegedly been forced out of the group in order to have more women than men in the community for polygamy.
There are lost boys in Utah, however, Texas cannot name one lost boy.
Officials say that the proof is that there are more 16-to-17-year-old girls than boys.
FLDS attorney, Rod Parker says that Texas is counting 20-to-22-year-old women as underage girls.
“But we know they are counting women as underage girls,” said Parker. “That’s why the ratio is out of whack.”