Pubdate: Thu, 11 Nov 1999
Date: 11/11/1999
Source: Houston Press (TX)
Author: Keith Sanders
Authors: Keith Sanders

It must be comforting to Angela Jenkins, and to her children, to know
that the state is so concerned with their welfare -- not counting the
four times she was turned down for Medicaid assistance.  Fortunately
Children's Protective Services cared enough to "help" Jenkins's
children by snatching them away from their mother, simply because she
took a politically unfashionable medication for her labor pains.

Apparently CPS thinks that the bond between a mother and child in the
first weeks and months of life is less important than teaching Jenkins
a firm moral lesson: Namely, that it is the government's job, not
yours, to decide what you may and may not do to your own body.

Keith Sanders,
El Cerrito, California