A Bad Mom: Judge goes too far by ordering birth control
Detroit Free Press
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
A Lapeer County judge clearly violated the privacy rights of the mother he ordered to submit to medically verifiable birth control. If the action is upheld by the Michigan Court of Appeals, it could open the door to sweeping abuses of women's reproductive rights.Judge Michael Higgins ordered the birth control because he believed Renee Gamez was, essentially, a bad mother. The judge was right about that. Gamez, 37, has a heroin habit. She was arrested in December while driving with drugs in her system and her daughters in the car. Her two girls -- now 18 months and 3 years old -- were, properly, placed in foster care. During a January family court hearing on Gamez's parental rights, Higgins said he wanted to prevent her from becoming a mother again, requiring her to prove she was using some form of birth control, such as an IUD. Her attorney objected, saying such birth control measures had in the past made Gamez ill. Too bad, the judge said. At issue are fundamental, firmly established constitutional rights. Few rights are absolute, but Higgins should not have overridden two primary ones -- privacy and procreation -- on the basis of Gamez being a terrible parent. If that was the criterion, the state could theoretically order millions of parents to stop making children. The real issues are Gamez's drug problem and the safety of her two children. The state has effective and constitutional means to deal with both. The judge's role should be protecting children, not deciding who can have them.
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