When Does A Judge Have The Authority To Order A Woman Not To Get Pregnant?

Question

Mandy Nelson is a 26 years old mother who has three children out of wedlock. She came before the judge due to a forgery charge. After discovering that Mandy is an unwed mother with three children and a high school drop out, the Buchanan County Circuit Judge said, ’If you want to stay out of jail you can not have another child out of wedlock!”

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Answer 1

Actually a judge can order a woman not to have more children, especially if there is evidence of neglect. My nephew started to adopt two little boys who were their mother's 7th and 8th children, all out of wedlock and with different men. She had another baby girl, who was the full sister of one of the boys and my nephew took her too. The woman was in her mid 20's and was ordered not to have any more children. A judge can actually order that a woman can be sterilized if she is a strain on social services and the children are neglected.

Answer 2

The judge can spew hyperbole from the bench - but he cannot enforce the order if she were to become pregnant. The judge realized that she was using forgery (rather than work or being paid court ordered child support) to provide for her children due to a drug conviction or any other illegal reason. A judge in Michigan tried to legally prevent a woman from having a child out of wedlock (this was before welfare reform in the early 90's) but the appeals court quickly threw that order out on its head. Judges also tried to order fathers to not conceive children and DNA tests exist to ensure that fathers are responsible for any children brought into the world.

Answer 3

It is not a bad idea at all in some cases. Think about the poor kids growing up without a father.... She is probably having such a tough life with 3 kids already. The judge is right to give this strong and sound advice.

Heard within the past couple of days on NPR that China's one-child policy is now credited for "saving" 300 millions lives over the past 20+ years.

Answer 4

The right to a family is part of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, any country in the UN should not be able therefore to force someone not to have children. However certain countries histories of adapting their own laws to remain within international law are less than perfect. If a judge acted like this in (I assume) the US, the judgement would probably be overturned as a matter of course.

In all likelihood, he was issuing her with some stern advice, though, rather than passing a court edict.

Answer 5

I think it is probably legal for a judge to order her not to become pregnant however it could easily be overturned in a higher court. The problem to fixing people from bringing children into this world that they cannot afford, will ultimately come to society actually paying people not to reproduce. It will take some time for society to accept this but I personally think it's the only thing that will work. They would have to become sterilized permanently. I know it sounds radical now, but in the future it will sound more sane

Answer 6

We'd have to do the legal research, but just in general, I do not think a judge could actually enforce that instruction. Now, the judge could make strong statements to Nelson, but at the end of the day, a woman's body is her own, not the government's.

Answer 7

A Judge can make a judgment in a lower Court, It is the higher
courtes that will change or say that the judgment is to stay in place

Answer 8

Um, no... Your body is your own. If she neglects the children, they can be taken away by Children's Services...

Answer 9

he can say all he wants, enforcement is another thing

Answer 10

never ??? this sounds more like a sexist comment