Family Rights and Child Abuse News

State-sponsored medical terrorism: Texas authorities arrest parents, kidnap their teenage daughter, and force her through chemotherapy against her will

Months after a Texas girl was diagnosed with cancer, state authorities have decided to let her return home after a long legal battle in which Texas officials â€" not the girl's parents â€" attempted to determine her treatment.

Thirteen-year-old Katie Wernecke was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymph nodes, in January 2005. The teenager underwent chemotherapy after being taken to the emergency room with what her parents had suspected was pneumonia, and doctors recommended she also receive radiation treatments. However, Katie's parents, Michelle and Edward Wernecke, refused the treatments for fear it could cause complications such as an increased risk of breast cancer, learning problems or stunted physical growth. That's when Texas authorities intervened, making private matters public in a way that many feel violated parental rights as well as principles of health freedom.

News Target

January 3, 2006

Update: Child Deaths in Clark County

by Colleen McCarty

Next week a legislative committee will begin to try to figure out why so many children in Clark County are dying despite intervention from Child Protective Services.

Clark County maintains state law prohibits them from releasing any child's death records. In short when a child dies we can't find out why or learn what, if anything, could have prevented the death. There's no public accountability.

KLAS-TV

December 27, 2005

11-year-old's rape swept under rug?

After drawing attention from pro-life groups, Planned Parenthood's San Francisco affiliate removed from its website a purported letter from a girl thanking the abortion provider for helping conceal from her parents a rape that occurred when she was 11.

The American Life League's STOPP International is calling on California Attorney General Bill Lockyer to investigate, asking whether Planned Parenthood is trying to hide evidence of a crime. "Planned Parenthood acts as if it is exempt from the law," said STOPP International's executive director, Jim Sedlak.

World Net Daily (CA)

December 16, 2005

Husband Pleads Guilty to Sex Assault of Child

by Gretchen Ruethling

A 22-year-old man charged earlier this year with the equivalent of statutory rape after impregnating his 13-year-old girlfriend, whom he later married, pleaded guilty yesterday to first-degree sexual assault of a child.

The defendant, Matthew Koso of Falls City, Neb., is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Daniel E. Bryan Jr. of Richardson County District Court on Feb. 7 and could face up to 50 years in prison. Mr. Koso had pleaded not guilty but decided to change his plea because he was unsure how a jury would decide the case, his mother, Peggy Koso, said in a telephone interview from the Falls City home that she and her husband share with Mr. Koso, his wife and their baby daughter, Samara.

The New York Times

December 14, 2005

DSS 'Follows The Money;' Makes An Extra $90 Million Per Year

by Edward G. Oliver

What's 'Best For The Child' Is Secondary To 'More Federal Money'

The Department of Social Services is using financial consultants who specialize in advising the state how to aggressively "maximize federal revenue." This means that the decision as to whether to remove a child from his parents is often a factor of whether the DSS can get more federal money.

Massachusetts News

December 1, 2005