'More than half' polygamist sect girls were pregnant

More than half the teenage girls taken from a polygamist compound in west Texas have children or are pregnant, state authorities said today.

A total of 53 girls aged between 14 and 17 are in state custody after a raid three and a half weeks ago at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. Of those girls, 31 either had children or were pregnant, said Child Protective Services spokesman Darrell Azar.

“It shows you a pretty distinct pattern, that it was pretty pervasive,” he said.

Officials took custody of all 463 children at the ranch controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, saying a pattern of teenage girls forced into underage “spiritual” marriages and sex with much older men created an unsafe environment for the sect’s children.

Under Texas law, children under 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult. A girl can get married with parental permission at 16, but none of these girls is believed to have a legal marriage under state law.

State officials said earlier that they had found girls who were pregnant or had children of their own at the ranch, but they had not provided more than rough estimates until now.

The church has denied that any children were abused at the ranch and says the state’s actions are a form of religious persecution.

FLDS spokesman Rod Parker said he did not believe the CPS count was accurate. He said that from talking to ranch residents, he believed at least 17 of the girls may actually be adults but had been labelled by CPS as minors.

Agency chiefs have called into question claims of adulthood among the girls since the raid and have in some cases disputed documentation provided, saying the girls look younger than 18. Because many FLDS members share similar names and have complicated family relationships, identifying all of the children taken into custody has been a challenge.

“I do have serious questions about how they are determining age in there,” said Mr Parker, who is trying to get a better count from FLDS families.

All the children are supposed to get individual hearings before June 5 to help determine whether they will stay in state custody or that parents may be able to take steps to regain custody of their children.

Civil liberties groups and lawyers for the children have criticised the state for sweeping all the children, from nursing infants to teenage boys, into foster care when only teenage girls are alleged to have been sexually abused.

No one has been charged since the raid, which was prompted by a series of calls to a domestic abuse hotline, purportedly from a 16-year-old forced into a marriage recognised only by the sect with a man three times her age.

That girl has not been found and authorities are investigating whether the call was a hoax.

The sect, which broke from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints more than a century ago, believes polygamy brings glorification in heaven.

Its leader, Warren Jeffs, is revered as a prophet. Jeffs was convicted last year in Utah of forcing a 14-year-old girl into marriage with an older cousin.