Freedom to Choose Motherhood?

Published on January 5, 2005

Judge Marilyn O’Connor of Rochester, NY, has ordered a second drug-addicted mother not to have any more children until she proves herself capable of caring for the seven she already has. Two of the women’s children were born with cocaine in their bloodstreams, and none of them reside with their mother (six are in foster […]

Judge Marilyn O’Connor of Rochester, NY, has ordered a second drug-addicted mother not to have any more children until she proves herself capable of caring for the seven she already has. Two of the women’s children were born with cocaine in their bloodstreams, and none of them reside with their mother (six are in foster care, and one is with a relative). O’Connor caused controvery last year when she ordered another women to cease having children until she reclaimed the four that were in foster care, but other judges have shied away such rulings and the ACLU has maintained that any orders against procreation are unenforceable as they “‘trample on a fundamental right — the right to procreate.'”

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