Category Archives: Eugenics

Staff Report

Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton is the lawyer for the State of Texas and is charged by the Texas Constitution to:

To fulfill these responsibilities, the Office of the Attorney General serves as legal counsel to all boards and agencies of state government, issues legal opinions when requested by the Governor, heads of state agencies and other officials and agencies as provided by Texas statutes.

The Texas AG sits as an ex-officio member of state committees and commissions and defends challenges to state laws and suits against both state agencies and individual employees of the State.

Many Texans look to the Office of the Attorney General for guidance with disputes and legal issues. The agency receives hundreds of letters, phone calls and visits each week about crime victims compensation, child support, abuse in nursing homes, possible consumer fraud and other topics. To find out more about the Texas Attorney General, visit the official website at https://texasattorneygeneral.gov/.

AG PaxtonJoinsBrief to Protect the Right to LifeforBabies with Down Syndrome

AUSTIN Attorney General Ken Paxton joined 17 other states in a friend-of-the-court brief to protect babies with Down Syndrome from abortion based solely on their genetics.

Despite numerous civil rights protections, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, an Ohio federal court created a categorical right to abortion, regardless of whether the reason for an abortion is clearly based on discrimination against a child with disabilities.

As fetal screening technology advances, the risk of eugenics-minded abortion, unfortunately, expands as well. To kill a child in the womb simply because they possess different physical or mental capabilities than their parents envisioned is a barbaric and horrifying act of discrimination against the helpless, said Attorney General Paxton. All life should be celebrated and all people, regardless of their genetics, should be afforded the right to life.

Ohios anti-eugenic law protects those with Down Syndrome from harm prior to their birth and opposes the demeaning stereotype that a life with disabilities is not worth living.

Allowing the baseless abortion of those with Down Syndrome opens the door to increasingly dangerous discrimination in determining who is allowed to live and who must not be born at all.

To view a copy of the amicus brief, click here.

Notification of Opinion

Official Request RQ-0299-KPVoting entitlement of the taxing units entitled in the election of an appraisal districts board of directors under Tax Code section 6.03(d)

Official Opinion KP-0287Tax Code section 6.031 authorizes a change to the voting entitlement of taxing units in the appointment of an appraisal districts board of directors.

Under the transition provisions of House Bill 1010 from 2007, a court would likely conclude that House Bill 1010 invalidated any previously adopted alternative method for determining that voting entitlement.

The voting entitlement for the appointment of appraisal district directors should be determined by Tax Code section 6.03(d), absent action taken under Tax Code section 6.031 to change that method subsequent to House Bill 1010.

Notification of Opinion

Original Request RQ-0298-KPProcedure to repeal a special road tax

Official Opinion: KP-0286To initiate an election to repeal a county road tax adopted under section 256.052 of the Transportation Code, a county commissioners court must receive a petition calling for the election signed by 200 registered voters of the county.

However, under section 256.053, the commissioners court may grant the petition only if satisfactory proof is presented of (1) great dissatisfaction with the tax; and (2) probable success of the election.

What constitutes satisfactory proof is a question of fact for the commissioners court to determine in the first instance, subject to judicial review.

Notification of Opinion

Original Request RQ-0297-KPConstruction of Transportation Code section 502.010, concerning a county assessor collectors authority to refuse to register motor vehicles based on certain scofflaw information.

Official Opinion: KP-0285In a county that does not have an information-sharing contract with the Department of Motor Vehicles, the county assessor-collector may refuse to register a motor vehicle under subsection 502.0IO(a) of the Transportation Code upon receipt of information that the owner owes the county a fine, fee, or tax that is past due, or failed to appear in certain criminal matters as specified in the statute.

Subsections (c), (d), (e), (f), and the second sentence of subsection (b-1) are not applicable to a county that does not have an information-sharing contract with the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Under subsection 502.0IO(b-1), the information provided to make a determination whether to refuse to register a motor vehicle under subsection 502.0IO(a)(l) expires on the second anniversary of the date information was provided and applies whether or not the county has an information-sharing contract with the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Section 502.010 does not provide for the expiration of information about a vehicle owners failure to appear in the specified criminal matters.

A countys contract with the Department of Public Safety relating to drivers license renewal under section 706.002 of the Transportation Code does not affect its authority or duties with respect to motor vehicle registration under section 502.010.

Request for Opinion

Official Request RQ-0328-KPWhether rider 52 to article III of the General Appropriations Act allows students to qualify for financial assistance through the Program to Encourage Certification to Teach Bilingual Education, English as a Second Language, or Spanish by taking an exam comparable to the State Board for Educator Certification Bilingual Target Language Proficiency Test or by passing a practice exam.

Date Received:January 17, 2019

Official Requestor:Harrison Keller, Ph.D.Commissioner of Higher EducationTexas Higher Education Coordinating BoardPost Office Box 12788Austin, Texas 78711

AG Paxton: Baby T.L.s Right to Life Must be Protected

AUSTIN ?Attorney General Ken Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott today filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Second Court of Appeals, urging the court to reverse a lower courts order and grant baby T.L.s family a temporary injunction until the case is resolved to protect the babys life.

In November 2019, Cook Childrens Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas denied the babys mothers request to continue life-sustaining treatment without first providing due process of law, directly violating her wishes and her daughters right to life. The family seeks an order from the court that will prevent the hospital from ignoring the familys wishes by ending baby T.L.s life.

Life is the first and ultimate constitutionally protected interest, and this case is certainly a matter of life or death, said Attorney General Paxton. This baby girl, like all Texans, has the right to life and due process. Patients must be heard and justly represented when determining their own medical treatment, especially when their life is in danger. My office will use all necessary resources to ensure that this baby and all Texans are afforded the rights they deserve.

Section 166.046 of the Texas Health and Safety Code states that a physician who decides that treatment is medically inappropriate along with an ethics or medical committee that affirms the decision is not required to provide life-sustaining treatment at the request of a patient or the person responsible for the health care decisions of the patient unless a court orders otherwise. The statute fails to require that physicians provide an explanation of why they refused life-sustaining treatment and provide the patients family with adequate notice and opportunity to argue their position prior to the committee reaching a decision, effectively allowing the government to deny an individuals right to his or her own life without due process.

To view a copy of the amicus brief, click here.

Read the original post:

Texas Joins Brief To Protect The Right To Life For Babies With Down Syndrome - San Marcos Corridor News

For the first time, a Canadian university the University of Guelph is reconciling with its history of teaching eugenics. Few universities in Canada have looked closely at their historical involvement in oppressive research, teaching and practice. Fewer still have made their archives accessible.

Through the first half of the 1900s, the eugenics movement had close ties to post-secondary institutions. For example, leaders at the University of Alberta also engaged in the eugenics movement and at the Alberta Eugenics Board. Two of the three founding colleges of the University of Guelph the Macdonald Institute and the Ontario Agricultural College officially taught eugenics between 1914 and 1948.

Once, eugenics spread the deeply damaging idea that it is possible, and even desirable, to improve the human race through selective breeding. It ultimately spawned policies aimed at eradicating those deemed unfit through institutional confinement, restrictive marriage, immigration laws and sterilization. Eugenics was considered a science from the early 1900s until the 1930s, when its scientific reputation began to decline and shift.

Exhibiting eugenics

Canadian universities have restricted access to those archives that implicate their institutions in profiting from oppressive ideas and practices. Kathryn Harvey, the schools head archivist, made the University of Guelph archive available to us.

Using the archives, we developed a co-created, multimedia and multi-sensory exhibition at the Guelph Civic Museum called Into the Light: Eugenics and Education in Southern Ontario, which began in September 2019 and runs until March 2020. It is the first of its kind to bring to light the difficult history of Canadian university involvement in teaching eugenics.

Into the Light is co-created by Mona Stonefish (our project Elder), Peter Park, Dolleen Tisawiiashii Manning, Evadne Kelly, Seika Boye and Sky Stonefish, with key supports from Carla Rice (ReVision Centre), Dawn Owen (Guelph Civic Museum) and Sue Hutton (Respecting Rights, a project at ARCH Disability Law Centre). It brings together Indigenous and disabled people who carry personal histories of forced confinement and sterilization.

The exhibition embraces disability and decolonizing curatorial practices that disrupt and unsettle. By presenting artistic, sensory and material expressions of memory through different formats, it speaks the hard truths of colonialism as Ho-Chunk scholar Amy Lonetree writes. By showing more than 30 years of eugenics course documents (1914-48) from the Macdonald Institute and Ontario Agricultural College, it is thus a rare opportunity to consider how eugenics was taught and practised in Ontario.

Teaching eugenics

In Into the Light, the eugenics course documents are accompanied by multiple perspectives. Take, for example, one of the course slides, entitled Eugenical Classification of the Human Stock that was initially displayed at the Second International Eugenics Congress in 1921.

The chart shows the connection between eugenics and British colonialism. In it, Cecil Rhodes is classified as a superior person of genius. In 1921, Rhodes was celebrated for his forceful British colonial and white supremacist agenda. Today, Rhodes is recognized as an early architect of apartheid, a policy that involved the systematic dehumanization of South Africas Black population from 1948 to 1994.

Also shown on the chart are the eugenic traits of those whom eugenicists deemed to be unfit, including people classified as feeble-minded, poor, criminal and epileptic. In the process of claiming the land and its peoples, Canadian colonial administrators, officers, physicians, educators and scientists framed First Peoples as impaired and mentally unfit in order to justify their actions. As decolonizing scholar Karen Stote writes in An Act of Genocide, this was a precursor to unethical sterilization and forced institutionalization.

The effects of colonialism and eugenics are seen in two large stacks of food sacks. The sacks reveal the forced domestic and agricultural labour imposed on those who were placed, sometimes violently, in Ontario residential institutions.

The sacks are accompanied by the smell of rotting potato to evoke the feeling of being denied comfort and nutrition.

The eugenics course suppressed independent thinking and experiential knowledges. But Into The Light centres once-marginalized survivor experiences and encourages viewers to think critically.

This article by Evadne Kelly and Carla Rice first appeared in 2019 in The Conversation via Creative Commons License.

Image: Reuters.

Continue reading here:

Why Universities Need to Come to Grips With Their Past Racist Teachings - The National Interest Online

A member of the plaintiffs' side holds a piece of paper with messages of support written on it, in Sendai's Aoba Ward, on Jan. 20, 2020. (Mainichi/Daisuke Wada)

SENDAI -- One of two women who effectively lost a damages suit in May 2019 against the Japanese government over its forced sterilization under the now-defunct eugenic protection law, opposed the lower court decision in her first appeal hearing on Jan. 20, saying she "didn't know about the law, or that Japan was conducting illegal acts, even at the time."

The woman in her 70s from Miyagi Prefecture filed her lawsuit seeking 38.5 million yen in compensation with the Sendai District Court in May 2018 under the alias "Junko Iizuka," after another woman in her 60s from the same northeast Japan prefecture filed a similar suit. The cases were later merged.

The lower court rejected both claims on May 28 last year, stopping short of recognizing the government's responsibility based on factors including the statute of limitations for illegal practices, which stipulates the right to demand compensation ends 20 years after an illegal act.

Iizuka said she "has been feeling down" since the ruling. She was divorced for not being able to have a child, and the sorrow triggered mental health conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. For Iizuka, who has repeatedly thought of killing herself due to the treatment, it's baffling why the government is not held accountable.

On May 31, the plaintiffs filed an appeal with the Sendai High Court. In response to the district court ruling, the legal team tried to bring up the statute of limitations as a point of contention by arguing, "The victims' right to seek compensation has not ended." Meanwhile, the government demanded the appeal be dismissed.

In the Jan. 20 hearing, the plaintiffs' side stressed the fact that "the victims could not objectively recognize the illegality of the sterilization surgery," as it was legitimate at the time, and the government had approved of deceiving people into receiving the surgery.

They also argued that the period of limitations for demanding compensation should commence from Feb. 16, 2017 -- when the Japan Federation of Bar Associations described the eugenics law as unconstitutional -- which, according to the plaintiffs, "is the first time the illegality of the damages became apparent." The government, however, said the period should start from the day the women underwent surgeries.

Furthermore, the plaintiffs' side showed examples of Supreme Court decisions and stressed that even if the period was counted from the day the women underwent surgeries, restrictions should apply to the statute of limitations in a case where an illegal act goes remarkably against justice and fairness. But the government insisted that the restrictions "only apply if the offender's act makes it objectively impossible for the victim to exercise their rights," and do not apply in this case.

Due to her unfortunate background, Iizuka was forced by a local welfare commissioner to enter Komatsushima Gakuen, a facility for children with intellectual disabilities in the prefectural capital of Sendai. After graduation, she was taken to a clinic by a person commissioned to provide vocational and other guidance to help people with intellectual disabilities integrate themselves into society. Iizuka, 16 at the time, was then anesthetized and received sterilization surgery without knowing.

She only came to realize that the surgery was carried out under the eugenic protection law (1948-1996) after reading a letter she received in 1997 from her father. Until that point, Iizuka had felt resentment against the local welfare commissioner and the person commissioned to provide vocational and other training to her, but decided to sue the government after coming to know that the surgery was part of a national policy.

"Because the government refuses to acknowledge its responsibility, I continue to feel resentment, and my symptoms are getting worse," Iizuka complained. She says she continues to feel pain in her lower abdomen as a side effect of the surgery. She added, "I hope for the government to properly acknowledge its responsibility in court."

(Japanese original by Hiroshi Endo, Sendai Bureau)

Follow this link:

Forced sterilization victim in Japan urges gov't to admit responsibility during appeal - The Mainichi

For the first time, a Canadian university the University of Guelph is reconciling with its history of teaching eugenics. Few universities in Canada have looked closely at their historical involvement in oppressive research, teaching and practice. Fewer still have made their archives accessible.

Through the first half of the 1900s, the eugenics movement had close ties to post-secondary institutions. For example, leaders at the University of Alberta also engaged in the eugenics movement and at the Alberta Eugenics Board. Two of the three founding colleges of the University of Guelph the Macdonald Institute and the Ontario Agricultural College officially taught eugenics between 1914 and 1948.

Once, eugenics spread the deeply damaging idea that it is possible, and even desirable, to improve the human race through selective breeding. It ultimately spawned policies aimed at eradicating those deemed unfit through institutional confinement, restrictive marriage, immigration laws and sterilization. Eugenics was considered a science from the early 1900s until the 1930s, when its scientific reputation began to decline and shift.

Canadian universities have restricted access to those archives that implicate their institutions in profiting from oppressive ideas and practices. Kathryn Harvey, the schools head archivist, made the University of Guelph archive available to us.

Using the archives, we developed a co-created, multimedia and multi-sensory exhibition at the Guelph Civic Museum called Into the Light: Eugenics and Education in Southern Ontario, which began in September 2019 and runs until March 2020. It is the first of its kind to bring to light the difficult history of Canadian university involvement in teaching eugenics.

Into the Light is co-created by Mona Stonefish (our project Elder), Peter Park, Dolleen Tisawiiashii Manning, Evadne Kelly, Seika Boye and Sky Stonefish, with key supports from Carla Rice (ReVision Centre), Dawn Owen (Guelph Civic Museum) and Sue Hutton (Respecting Rights, a project at ARCH Disability Law Centre). It brings together Indigenous and disabled people who carry personal histories of forced confinement and sterilization.

The exhibition embraces disability and decolonizing curatorial practices that disrupt and unsettle. By presenting artistic, sensory and material expressions of memory through different formats, it speaks the hard truths of colonialism as Ho-Chunk scholar Amy Lonetree writes. By showing more than 30 years of eugenics course documents (1914-48) from the Macdonald Institute and Ontario Agricultural College, it is thus a rare opportunity to consider how eugenics was taught and practised in Ontario.

In Into the Light, the eugenics course documents are accompanied by multiple perspectives. Take, for example, one of the course slides, entitled Eugenical Classification of the Human Stock that was initially displayed at the Second International Eugenics Congress in 1921.

The chart shows the connection between eugenics and British colonialism. In it, Cecil Rhodes is classified as a superior person of genius. In 1921, Rhodes was celebrated for his forceful British colonial and white supremacist agenda. Today, Rhodes is recognized as an early architect of apartheid, a policy that involved the systematic dehumanization of South Africas Black population from 1948 to 1994.

Also shown on the chart are the eugenic traits of those whom eugenicists deemed to be unfit, including people classified as feeble-minded, poor, criminal and epileptic. In the process of claiming the land and its peoples, Canadian colonial administrators, officers, physicians, educators and scientists framed First Peoples as impaired and mentally unfit in order to justify their actions. As decolonizing scholar Karen Stote writes in An Act of Genocide, this was a precursor to unethical sterilization and forced institutionalization.

The effects of colonialism and eugenics are seen in two large stacks of food sacks. The sacks reveal the forced domestic and agricultural labour imposed on those who were placed, sometimes violently, in Ontario residential institutions.

The sacks are accompanied by the smell of rotting potato to evoke the feeling of being denied comfort and nutrition.

The eugenics course suppressed independent thinking and experiential knowledges. But Into The Light centres once-marginalized survivor experiences and encourages viewers to think critically.

The exhibition has had a jarring impact on university students, especially those in psychology, sociology, human development, political science and social work who are aiming for careers in the same professions that once supported eugenics.

One psychology graduate student, for example, spoke about how his relationship towards the University of Guelph transformed after visiting the exhibition. When he learned about the universitys role in teaching eugenics, his pride quickly turned to feelings of discomfort and disorientation. But he became open and eager to change when he realized that the university chose to expose and address its history instead of trying to cover it up.

For survivors and aggrieved groups, the display of archival documents has had an impact also. One survivor of the Mohawk Institute and the Training School for Girls said she felt relieved and validated after decades of being silenced, denied and disbelieved all of which compounded the crimes she experienced due to eugenics.

Dalhousie University and Ryerson University are two schools with close ties to 19th century figures who profited from oppression, enslavement and colonization Lord Dalhousie and Egerton Ryerson, respectively. Both schools are coming to terms with these histories. They are establishing scholarly panels and a consultation processes with aggrieved groups, that can address colonial, racist and ableist attitudes, policies and practices.

University archivists, librarians, researchers and administrators across the country should work with communities to find meaningful ways of making their archives accessible to those targeted by destructive ideas and practices. Uncovering hidden stories of the past calls into question our ways of doing things in the present; for aggrieved and justice-seeking groups, an open past opens up more just possibilities for the future.

[ Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversations newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on todays news, every day. ]

Go here to see the original:

Universities must open their archives and share their oppressive pasts - The Conversation CA

In the midst of tremendous cultural shifts during the 1960s, I was a youngster often recovering from experimental surgeries and struggling to understand why I was different. On my familys 12-inch black and white TV I witnessed people gathered together speaking out against injustices surrounding race, gender, sexual orientation and class struggles. But I didnt see people like me displayed on the evening news.

Since the late 1800s, most people born with disabilitiesin Europe and the United States were properly shunned housed in institutions. Such facilities were for the most part located on undeveloped parcels of land and rarely seen by local residents. They were out of sight, out of mind. Individuals many placed as babies were put away under the guise of it being for their own good and the good of society and regarded as second-class citizens. Many with physical disabilities acquired cognitive delays due to lack of environmental stimulation. Societal attitudes propelled a sub-standard segregated life and furthered stigmatization.

Related: 8 Reasons Why Cerebral Palsy Is My Best Christmas Gift

World War II had ended two decades earlier and remained in the worlds rearview mirror. Millions of Jews and others were murdered in the name of eugenics, an attempt to create superior humans in a twisted misinterpretation of Darwins survival of the fittest. The others included people living in private and state-operated institutions, identifiedunder Nazi policies as life unworthy of life. Individuals with congenital, cognitive and physical disabilities (including people termed in the 20th century as feebleminded people with mental illness, epilepsy, deafness, blindness, cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy) for elimination from the chain of heredity.

My young self was ignorant of these horrid events and yet mindful of others perceptions. My pre-school-aged memories are filled with Why do you talk that way? or How come you walk funny? comments I heard whenever I stepped out my front door and into the world.

A stiff upper lip persona took shape inside of me. My childhood naivet vanished like smoke from an extinguished candles wick. Adults interrogated my mom with similar questions. They spoke over me as if I wasnt there. Moms attempt to shield her baby girl against implicit discrimination often failed. She made valiant efforts to protect me from the perpetual dreaded question, Whats wrong with you? dipped in a thick ooh. It reeked with flashing red lights. There was no mistaking the underlying message. You dont belong. I didnt belong. Strangers stares and words cloaked me in shame.

Related: To the Person Ashamed to Use Tools to Help Their Disability

I have cereba paly, I replied, delivered with a meek smile. I know, I tal funny. I ound illy. I followed it with my trademark snicker. If I can make them laugh, they will feel some ease and know that Im fully aware. It gave me a slightly opened door to enter, a chance to connect. How I longed to belong.

In addition to receiving instruction and therapies (presently known as early intervention), my special school provided a sense of belonging. I shared an incomprehensible bond with my classmates. Different. The politest label people beyond the schools grounds considered us.

Kids who were not my classmates laughed when they met me. Shouts of retarded or Frankenstein often hit my ears. Their words power shook my already precarious balance. Frankenstein referenced my walk. I walked with my arms held up towards the sides of my chest. My hands pointed towards the ground. This stance assisted with balance as I staggered on tip-toes turned inward. Oh, how I longed to be like everyone else.

Related: 8 Tips for Managing Your Menstrual Cycle With Cerebral Palsy

By first grade I had decided my experiences at the other end of strangers voyeuristic looks and labels werent worth sharing with Mom and Dad. The fear on their faces when expressing such encounters pierced me. Dads fear disguised behind familiar splashes of disgust reinforced the ridicule I felt. Mom, on the other hand, delivered a well-pat response. Some people are ignorant, Jen. Your purpose in life is to educate them. Her strong words clung to my brain. These words developed into my lifes mantra.

On a ride home from school one day, my bus idled at a busy intersection. A mother and her young daughter caught my eye at the corner gas station. The girl appeared to be 5 or 6 years old close to my age. They giggled as they ran around their car. My onlooker smile turned to tears before the green light signaled the bus driver to proceed. I yearned to run carefree, to play without hearing Dads voice with or without him present saying, Be careful, Jen. Youre going to fall.

Our school bus rolled forward and struggled into gear. I strained my neck to retain the girl and her mother in my sight. What are you looking at? the boy seated behind me snickered, laughing as he noticed the tears streaming down my cheeks. Why are you crying?

Its nothin. I turned away in embarrassment.

Where do I fit? ran through my mind. That is my first memory of attempting to process being different as Mom said. To Moms credit, different was a palliative term. I never heard disability throughout childhood. The word was not a part of the societal vocabulary. Crippled, impaired, handicapped and retarded graced our countrys vernacular, on the rare occasions such discussions occurred at all.

Throughout the 1960s and into the 70s, our culture gave little thought, let alone consideration to persons with disabilities. Segregation of children and adults with disabilities continued. For those not living in institutions like me, buses drove us each weekday far from our homes and the neighborhood schools we wished to attend.

Up with a stuffy nose one night, I snuggled with Mom on our couch. The lights were off and the TVs volume was set low so as not to disturb Dads sleep.

Who tat? I sprang from a near sleep.

Oh. Thats Ironside.

Ironide? What his name? My interest peaked as I raised my head from Moms chest. They let him be a cop?

Hes a detective. She seemed unaware of my questions motivation.

Wow! Deteive. What happen to em?

Happened to him? She whispered in a thicker-than-usual Kentucky accent from nearing sleep.

Why he in a wheelchai?

Oh! Mom shook awake from her respite. Somebody shot em. He cant walk no more. She whispered.

He coul wak before? Tat ad. I was struggling to whisper so as not to wake Dad. I hoped my words had reached Moms ear.

Yeah, its sad. But remember, Jen. TVs not real. Its actin.

Oh, yeah. So he can wal in eal life. ight?

Yeah. His real names Raymond Burr.

In my 5-year-olds wonderment, I thought only kids were different. Raymond Burr on Ironside was the first adult I ever saw who was different. My excitement to learn more about the man on the screen and the budding identity of me taking root gave way to the nights silence.

6 Lessons 'Margarita With a Straw' Can Teach Us About Disability

8 Great Gifts for People With Cerebral Palsy

How We Can Improve Disability Inclusion in Schools

Read the original post:

What It Was Like Growing Up With Cerebral Palsy in the 1960s - Yahoo Lifestyle

Parenting in 2019 often feels very confusing in this way. Every decision can be met with second guessing,anxiety, ambivalence, and a large online community of people who will either affirm or reject whatever it is that youre doing. Sometimes, youdont even know that what youre doing is wrong, and you may be told that there is no way to repair the damage youvedone, and guess what? You still have 18 years left of raising that kid youve already ruined with your poor decision-making. Good luck with that.

A new book written by two academics looks at the many complexities of present day parenting and exposes some of the different (and similar) approaches society took to moms in earlier times. In Youre Doing It Wrong!: Mothering, Media, and Medical Expertise, authors Margaret M. Quinlan and Bethany Johnson detail all of the ways we are flooded with mixed messages about parenting today, and how to navigate this messy terrain to find the voices that will really help.

In a phone interview with SheKnows, Quinlan, a mother of two, related to my feelings of constant maternal bewilderment. You cant blame us for constantly stressing about the ways in which we may be failing our kids. Theso-called village has all but disappeared for most people, so every day, Im at home alone with my son. In place ofthe villagehas come the internet, which can be an incredibly helpful resource but also create more confusion and chaos by spreading false information. For example, the growth of anti-vaccine sentiment in recent years has been linked to measles outbreaks, an illnesspreviously thought to have been wiped outin our country.

Moms nowadays are often left to their own devices after birth, as if its not bad enough thatthe U.S. has the highest maternal death rateof any developed country. Maternal mortality iseven higher for women of color. Black mothers arethree to four times more likely to diethan white mothers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A2018 studyfrom the University of Illinois at Chicago found thatheart disease is a leading cause of maternal deathin the U.S., and another study published earlier this year found thatsuicide and drug overdoses are leading causes of death in new mothers.

In researching for her book, Quinlan found that many new mothers were better cared for a hundred years ago than they are now. Doctors made house visits to see new babies rather than ask moms to haul their newborns into crowded, germ-infested offices.

We were able to figure out how to better support immigrant women in Boston in the 1900s better than were able to do it today in a lot of ways, Quinlan, an associate professor of communication studies at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, said. People came to your house and it was free whereas most of us are alone and fathers are back at work.

For many women, itsthe pediatrician who noticesthat mom is not okay. At the same time, the pediatrician only treats kids, and its not easy for moms to manage their own health issues when they must care for a child 24/7.

When you go to the pediatrician and ask about [yourself], they say, youre not my patient, and you then have to go to a lactation consultant and call all these people [all] while youre baby is screaming, Quinlan continued.

The internet also allows us tocompare ourselves to other momsand question our own parenting abilities along the way. It can be easy to look at apopular influencers Instagram pageand think she has motherhood and life figured out, especially if she has tens of thousands of followers, major sponsors paying her, and gorgeous backdrops for all the photos of her and her beautiful children. Quinlan says that while she admires people who have been able to do this, she recognizes that this does not represent her world or the reality for most moms.

My life is never going to look like that, she said. Ive never had a picture of me and my family going through a field. We justdont have the money for a photographer and its not my reality.

All this comparing can lead to feelings of doing it wrong, and while this might seem like a relatively new phenomenon on social media, its deeply rooted in the parenting experience. Quinlan explained to SheKnows by phone that the past looks a lot more like the present than we all may realize. In the early 1900s, many people in the U.S.competed in Better Baby contestsin thespirit of eugenics. Thankfully, competition among babies plays out in a much different and less harmless way today. Instead, we see other peoples babies walking or talking early on social media and ask ourselves, Gee, my baby is that age. Why isnt he doing any of these things yet?!

Quinlan, who shared that her son is having some issues with food that has warranted visits to various experts, said its important not to frame everything as a choice or fault moms for not doing research on whatever issues they may be facing.

Lets not assume that everyone is able to read peer-reviewed journal articles, not that theydont want to, but even Idont have time to read some of the stuff Im going through with my son, I am just surviving, she said.

This is whereProfessor Emily Ostercomes in. Oster, a popular academic figure among moms online, has made a name for herself analyzing research on child rearing and pregnancy to help mothers make informed decisions about parenting. Quinlan agrees that Oster provides a wealth of information for mothers who may not know how to sift through the many conflicting studies and pieces of research they stumble upon in search ofanswers on parenting: will breastfeeding really make my child smarter? How dangerous is co-sleeping? Will allowing my child to cry it out scar him/her for life?

Oster isnt the only person online who can help new moms figure out what works best for their families. Quinlan noted the existence of internet fertility support groups, which for many women are a significantly more affordable option than fertility treatment. Women in these groups can check in with each other during the two-week wait, the time period from ovulation to when someone would get an accurate pregnancy test result.

In the fertility research wevedone, weve found some really amazing community in Instagram, people following up on each other during the two-week wait, people willing to fill in the social support gap of people who arent sharing with their families, she said.

Internet-based mom groups are also good options for someone who might not be able to pay dues for groups that meet in person, get their newborn out of the house, or ditch work for meetups.

A lot of people are posting at 3 a.m. to Facebook because theyre scared, theyre alone, theyre trying to decide, OK, this is a $300 copay. If I go to the ER in the middle of the night, it could end up being thousands. Should I wait until 9 a.m. when the doctors office opens and pay a lower amount? Quinlan said. Instead of shaming them [for not going to the ER right away], say what can I do to help you? What can I do to support you? Idont know whats happening in that rash picture [you shared on Facebook], but can I Venmo you $5 for a coffee because tomorrow is going to be a long day? What can we be doing to support each other in these crises and not shaming each other?

With social media and the internet, its easier now more than ever to find what youre looking for online, whether its a thyroid support group or a niche community that celebrates your favorite parenting style. It can be overwhelming digging through everything in between, but discovering a community that best suits your needs might make parenting feel a lot less daunting, and remind you that so many people are in the same boat. Quinlan told SheKnows that she learned more from some of these online groups than shed find in the pages of more traditional sources.

Some of these things are harder to find in medical textbooks or some of the pregnancy books, she said. I think theres a lot of space for a lot of people who have a lot of different experiences, and we need to talk about what those look like.

See the original post here:

Motherhood Has Never Been More Complicated Heres How to Simplify It - SheKnows

THEY are small huts, scattered across the country, which appear on the outside to be fairly unassuming

But behind the walls of the barely habitable dwellings lay the truth of a bizarre experiment that saw Scottish authorities attempt to control a distinct racial group in a bid to get them to integrate into mainstream society.

Known as the "Tinker Experiment", it saw members of the travelling community placed in specially provided huts, far from the rest of society, in a bid to break them into joining the rest of the population and effectively kill off their culture.

Remarkably, most of these sites only closed in the 1980s, but one in Pitlochry remained in use only a decade ago.

READ MORE:Gypsy Travellers: Scotland's human rights shame

Now members of the travelling community are demanding an official apology from the Scottish Government for what they call Scotland's secret shame, and they're planning a protest at Holyrood next month.

They are angry that other sections of society have received apologies for historically poor treatment from the state while they still wait, despite it being illegal to discriminate against gypsy travellers on grounds of race since the Equality Act of 2010.

Shamus McPhee, who was a subject of the experiment at Bobbin Mill, Pitlochry, pointed out that each reason the Scottish Government had given why it couldn't apologise for the Tinker Experiment could be rebutted through a previous apology to another distinct group.

He said the Government had in the past said it was unable to apologise for the actions of a previous government, ignoring an unreserved apologise to the gay community. On another occasion, he said, it claimed claimed it couldn't apologise for local government initiatives or the actions of public bodies but apologised for the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

Mr McPhee said another government defence had been that it couldn't offer apologies for events which predated devolution, but that that overlooked an apology to those affected by the contaminated blood scandals of the 1980s and 1990s.

He said: "A programme of eugenics saw Gypsy Travellers separated out on racial grounds for removal from Scottish society. This marked a top-down, concerted approach, designed to eradicate a specific group of people.

"I think that quite a striking analogy can be drawn between our treatment, almost colonial in aspect, especially the level of subsequent denial, and that of the aboriginal people in Australia. The extent of that institutional racism is most clearly illuminated in the response from central government in Scotland, which has been described as 'wilful blindness' on the part of the ruling elite."

READ MORE:Scotland needs to do better for Gypsy/Travellers

His sister Roseanna adds: "Although the authorities said it was a housing experiment it was actually a racial experiment, it was a form of eugenics because nobody could be put in the houses unless they were what they called a 'tinker'.

"There was no one from mainstream society who was put there and we were kept away from that mainstream. These houses were specifically designed to ease the tinker problem."

The genesis of what became known as the Tinker Experiment in private government circles began just over a century ago. In a deputation to the Secretary of Scotland in 1917, it was claimed that "with kindly treatment, tinkers could be reclaimed and brought into line with ordinary civilisation".

The chair of the Department of Tinkers in Scotland, the Duchess of Atholl, asked for a Scotland-wide census on the numbers and social make-up of these communities.

This was an attempt to measure what was called at the time in the press as the "Tinker Problem", and then solve this problem by assimilating travellers into mainstream Scottish society by threatening to remove their children into care.

By forcing them to send their children to school for a set number of days, the gypsy families would have to settle in permanent accommodation as governments and local authorities recognised that the families had a close bond with their children.

Due to the secretive nature of the plan, exact figures have been hard to come by, but it is believed that thousands of individuals were forced to exist in properties with no hot water, electricity or proper washing facilities.

Those who refused had their children taken into care.

Throughout the 20th century huts to house travellers were built in at least 10 different locations across Scotland.

These included the Bridge of Don barracks in Aberdeen, Red Rocks in Inverness-shire and Muir of Ord on the edge of the Black Isle.

These sites were basic by design with minimum living facilities and were closely supervised by the authorities.

On the Muir of Ord site, the idea "was to train the tinker how to live in a house, instead of in sheds, old buses and under canvas which would give them a better chance in life".

In Perthshire alone, 35 traveller families were housed in substandard huts, many unaware that they were part of a racial experiment.

Perthshire Council initially bought a former WWII prisoner of war hut to be used as housing for four gypsy families.

In a letter from 1945 concerning the creation of the property, the council ignored bylaws for minimum standards of housing, instead applying regulations intended for tents, vans or sheds.

The huts were deliberately substandard to encourage travelling families to quickly move into mainstream accommodation and so be assimilated into Scottish society, reasoning no-one would put up with the property for more than three years.

However, this assimilation was difficult as many gypsies felt they couldn't practise their own culture living in a council estate isolated from their own community.

Those affected have repeatedly asked the Scottish Government for an apology, but without success.

Most of these sites closed in the 1980s but one in Pitlochry remained in use only a decade ago.

The Bobbin Mill huts were partitioned with asbestos-coated wood into four sections for different families to occupy.

Each hut consisted of one bedroom and a toilet and cold water sink. It had no electricity and accommodated up to 10 family members.

Yet according to resident Alexander Johnstone, who lived there from the 1960s, the poor conditions were despite the fact there was ready access to utilities. "Even though there was a gas tank nearby and a house over the back that had electricity only about 30 metres away, they wouldn't install it for some reason.

"I never saw a council person the whole time I was there, and if anything was broken we just had to fix it ourselves."

The building was condemned as unfit for human habitation in 1962 yet the council continued to place families there throughout the decade.

Many former residents believe that their recurring health problems today stem from the asbestos dust and freezing conditions of their childhood home.

Roseanna McPhee recalls a locum doctor who had previously worked in South Africa making a house call.

She said: "He compared the huts to Soweto. If you didn't just get on with living in the bad conditions and thole it, the children would be taken into care."

Even if the families did suffer in silence, their children were still at risk of being removed.

Jessie McPhee's family were also occupants, but she and her twin brother Robert were taken into care in 1956 at birth as the local council decided there was not enough room to accommodate any more children in the family of 12.

She believes her parents simply accepted the authorities' decision out of fear that all of their children would be taken away from them.

Jessie returned to the family home to start primary school, but Robert was placed in a boarding school because of his behaviour. He kept running away from the home because of the treatment he received there, coming from a minority group. She is convinced Robert, who died 20 years ago, never recovered from the double rejection.

She said: "He felt he had been rejected twice, by my parents when he was taken into the children's home and then by the boarding school. He was an alcoholic who drank himself to death because he couldn't accept what had happened to him."

The experiment in assimilation failed as the children were mercilessly bullied at the local primary and secondary school and then became stigmatised because of their sub-human housing, which affected their chances of forming relationships outside those in the same situation.

Roseanna explains: "You couldn't assimilate. If you went out with someone from the wider community and they found out you were from the hut, you never saw them again.

"People could accept you were a traveller or a gypsy but they couldn't accept that you were living in these appalling conditions they couldn't understand that you didn't want to be there they didn't understand that you were put there."

When asked about the Tinker Experiment, the Scottish Government acknowledged the treatment the travellers had received and the impact it had on them, but again stopped short of an apology.

READ MORE:It needs guts to take the road less travelled. And for Gypsies, that means protecting their children from the outside world. But at what cost?

A spokesperson told The Herald on Sunday: The lives of many gypsy travellers have been blighted by the historical housing polices of councils and charities. We absolutely recognise the devastating impact which these polices had on families, many of whom are still suffering the consequences.

A joint Scottish Government and Cosla 3 million action plan to tackle the discrimination and challenges faced by the gypsy/traveller community was published in October.

See more here:

Scandal of The Tinker Experiment: demands for apology over Scotland's treatment of gypsy travellers - HeraldScotland

This weekend, Pope Francis spoke to Catholic high school students about how to reach nonbelievers, stressing that Christians should live their faith out loud rather than trying to try to coerce people to convert, invoking the crusades as a time of great shame.

In front of an unbeliever, the last thing I have to do is try to convince him. Never. The last thing I have to do is speak, the pontiff said,according to Disrn.Instead, he stressed, I have to live consistent with my faith. And it will be my testimony to awaken the curiosity of the other who says: But why do you do this? And yes, I can speak then.

Never, never bring the gospel by proselytizing, he said later. If someone says they are a disciple of Jesus and comes to you with proselytism, they are not a disciple of Jesus.

Pope Francis invoked the crusades and conversion by the sword, calling it shameful and noting that Christians across the globe are similarly wrongly killed for their faith.

We are not in the times of the crusades, he said. Either the baptism or the sword. This has happened in history! They also do it with us Christians in other parts, they are also doing it but what we did was shameful because it is a story of forced conversion, of not respecting the dignity of the person.

The Holy Father said he first learned of the principle of coexistenceback in Argentina, amid mass migration.

There is a mixture of blood, a strong mixed race in Argentina I am the son of a migrant, and this has made a culture of coexistence, he explained. I went to public school and we always had companions from other religions. We were educated to coexist: There is a Jew, Russian, ah come, come! I am a friend of Russian! They said Russian because the majority of the Jews came from Odessa, some from Poland but the majority from Odessa. Then there were some Arabs, Lebanese, Syrians Ah, Turkish! Come, come! This was Muslim, this was Jewish. But we all played football together, we were all friends.

This has taught me so much, that we are all the same, all children of God and this purifies your gaze, it makes you human, Pope Francis said. In Argentina there is a small group of closed-minded Catholics who do not want Jews, do not want Muslims, but this group I have never liked it, is a group that is on the fringe, they have a cultural magazine but they do not have impact in society.

But listen: Never, never bring the gospel by proselytizing. If someone says they are a disciple of Jesus and comes to you with proselytism, they are not a disciple of Jesus, the pontiff said.

Pope Francis has repeatedly focused on the dignity of each human life. Last summer, for example, the pope compared aborting children for birth defects to Nazi eugenics. The Daily Wire reported:

I have heard that its fashionable, or at least usual, that when in the first months of pregnancy they do studies to see if the child is healthy or has something, the first offer is: lets send it away, the Pope said, according to CNN, which appeared shocked by the news that the Pope is, indeed, a faithful member of the Catholic Church and opposed to the practice of abortion which the Church believes ends a human life.

I say this with pain. In the last century the whole world was scandalized about what the Nazis did to purify the race. Today we do the same, but now with white gloves, he continued.

Read the original:

Pope Francis Tells Students How Not To Convert Unbelievers - The Daily Wire

Over the years, The News & Advance has told the stories of those who were involuntarily sterilized at what now is known as the Central Virginia Training Center.

At least 3,800 sterilization procedures were done as part of the now-discredited eugenics movement at the training center. About 8,000 Virginians were sterilized statewide.

Here are some of their stories:

Janet Ingram remembered the day in 1965 she was taken to what now is the Central Virginia Training Center.

She was 16 years old, living in a Nelson County foster home with a woman who made her care for babies assigned to the home by the welfare system.

The social worker came and got us and took us to the training school, and told Janet she and other girls were going to get a physical examination.

They said, get in bed, and we did, Janet told The News & Advance in 2014.

Then the nurse came back, and she had a needle. She gave us a shot, and we went to sleep.

And then my stomach was hurting. I looked down there, and it was stitches in it.

The nurse came in and said, Why are you crying?

I said, Ive got stitches in my stomach.

She said, Oh, youve just been sterilized. You didnt want a baby, because they are nasty.

I told her, I would love to have a kid, I like kids.

I thought about how it would look just like me, Janet remembered.

Janet befriended a nurse at the training center and eventually went to live at her familys farm in Campbell County where, at 19, she took on a nanny-type role with the nurses 5-year-old daughter, Hope Wright, andended up caring for the sisters.

Neither Sadie nor Janet went beyond the 6th grade in a Nelson County elementary school.

Sadie was sterilized in 1960 and Janet five years later. Their mother, two sisters and an aunt all were sterilized at the Madison Heights facility.

The reason court documents list for Janet and Sadies sterilization is cultural familial mental retardation.

Lewis Reynolds began having seizures at 3, after an older cousin hit him in the head with a rock during play.

He was admitted to the institution at age 12 and sterilized on Jan. 30, 1942 at age 13. The doctor wrote the procedure will take a big burden off him in the future.

Sometimes I cry when I see a lady pregnant or something like that. I always wanted children and never could have them, he told The News & Advance in 2012. Sometimes I get off by myself and cry.

Reynolds joined the Marines, serving in Korea and Vietnam. He became a licensed electrician later in life. He was married twice.

During his time in Korea, Reynolds received a dear-John letter from his first wife. One reason she gave for leaving was his inability to have a family.

Later, he married Deloris Layne of Lynchburg. He said he suggested they adopt children, but she refused. She said, If I cant have my own, Im not going to have somebody elses children and be responsible for them, he said.

Deloris Reynolds died in 2007, after they had been married 47 years.

Still, Reynolds wished he could have been a father.

Sarah Pack Wiley understood little of what the operation meant, but she remembers one part.

They gave me ether, she told The News & Advance in 2012. Wileys discharge documents from the training school confirm a sterilization procedure in 1959 when she was 24 years old.

Wiley, Shirley and their older brother, Marvin, were taken from their parents in Patrick County and admitted to the training school in March 1948, according to documents she has kept.

Wiley was diagnosed as having a moderate mental deficiency upon admission to the institution at age 11.

Training-school officials sent Wiley to work in peoples homes, doing housekeeping or babysitting. In many cases, the homes were owned by the institutions staff members.

She was discharged from the training school in 1976.

At age 51, she met and married James Wiley, who cooked chili at the Texas Inn. Their marriage lasted until his death 11 years later.

One of the medical documents confirms SarahWiley underwent the sterilization procedure in 1959. It reads MEDICAL EVENTS IN THE INSTITUTION: In 1948 she had acute tonsillitis, in 1949 pharyngitis, 1959 sterilization, and in 1974 arrhythmia.

Sidener is the special publications editor for The News & Advance. Reach her at (434) 385-5539.

View original post here:

CVTC eugenics victims: 'I always wanted children and never could have them' - Lynchburg News and Advance

Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced an agreement with the state of Oregon to develop a system to ensure the states child welfare agency does not discriminate against parents with disabilities, a move that could benefit one in ten parents in the United States.

The agreement stems from a case involving Amy Fabbrini and Eric Ziegler. Fabbrini and Ziegler endured a five-yearbattle with the state of Oregon to regain custody of their two sons, who were both taken into foster care after their respective births following concern that Fabbrini and Ziegler would be unable to care for them.

No abuse was alleged against Fabbrini and Ziegler, who say their below-average scores on state-sanctioned IQ tests are why Oregon held the children in foster care until their court-ordered releases in late 2017 and early 2018.

Fabbrini and Zieglers case is not unique. At least 40 percent to 80 percent of parents in the United States with intellectual disabilities will lose custody of their children, according to a 2012 report from the National Council on Disability, on which I was the primary author.

Want more Rewire.News? Get the facts, direct to your inbox.

SIGN UP

This discrimination is not only harmful to familiesit is also unlawful. Indeed, both Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibit child welfare agencies and courts from discriminating against disabled parents.

These federal laws also require child welfare agencies and courts to provide reasonable modifications in policies, programs, and procedures to ensure disabled parents are offered an equal opportunity. For example, Deaf parents must be provided sign language interpreters, and parents with intellectual disabilities should receive individualized services based on the familys needs.

Yet, nearly 50 years since the Rehabilitation Act was passed and 30 years since the ADA became law, discrimination continues to persist. As a result, families are being torn apart.

Such discrimination is a long-standing issue in U.S. history, rooted in eugenics practices like intelligence tests and other standards that, historically, have resulted in children being removed from families and forced sterilization of those withor those perceived to havedisabilities.

Roughly two-thirds of state child welfare laws still allow for a parents disability to be considered for the purposes of terminating parental rights, according to the National Council on Disability. Tellingly, researchers from the University of Minnesota found that nationally, 19 percent of children in foster care had been removed from their homes at least in part because they had a disabled parent. That same study found parents with disabilities had 22 percent higher odds of having their parental rights terminated, compared to other parents. And, a recent study found that parents with psychiatric disabilities were eight times more likely than other parents to have involvement with the child welfare system.

The belief that disabled people are unfit parents dates back to the eugenics movement in the early 20th century, when people with disabilities and others who were deemed unfit to procreate were forcibly sterilized. This barbaric treatment even gained the blessing of the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1927 Buck v. Bell case, which held it was constitutional to sterilize people with disabilities forcibly. This alarming decision led to more than 30 states enacting laws that permitted involuntary sterilization, and an estimated 70,000 Americans, many of whom had disabilities, sterilized against their wishes.

But studies do not indicate that parents with disabilities are more likely than nondisabled parents to abuse or neglect their children. In fact, research has consistently found that most disabled parents and their families fare quite well when provided the chance. Studies have shown that a lower IQ has nothing to do with ones fitness as a parent. IQ scores themselves are rooted in flawed methodology and have been used to justify racist and eugenics practices. Further, some scholars contend that there are ways in which children actually benefit from having a disabled parent, such as exhibiting increased empathy.

Thus, the overrepresentation of parents with disabilities within the child welfare system is most often based on prejudice rather than actual harm. But the federal government largely has been silent about the rights of parents with disabilities, which makes OCRs recent action notableand long overdue.

As a result of the new agreement, the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) must now review ten other cases concerning parents with disabilities to discern if each were handled properly. In the voluntary resolution agreement, the state agency promises to make decisions about removing children from their parents based on actual risks that pertain to the individual parent and not on mere speculation, generalizations, or stereotypes about individuals with disabilities. In other words, the state should only remove children if there is actual abuse or neglect, and not simply because their parent is disabled.

Such reasoning led to the removal of Fabbrini and Zieglers first-born son, Christopher, in September 2013. Within days of bringing him home from the hospital, Fabbrinis family contacted DHS, expressing concerns that the couples intellectual disabilities made them unable to care for their infant. DHS agreed and placed Christopher in foster care.

In order to regain custody, DHS required the couple to complete parenting and nutrition classes, and learn CPR and first aid, and they did. They also underwent psychological evaluations and participated in supervised visitation with Christopher.

Despite the parents resolve, the then-1-year-old remained in foster care. In 2015, the couples lawyer filed a motion to return him to his parents, arguing there was no current threat of serious loss or injury to the child. It was denied.

Four years later, in February 2017, the couple gave birth to their second child, Hunter. This time, DHS immediately put him in foster care while Fabbrini was still in the hospital. Meanwhile, the parents battle for custody of their children persisted.

In court, the states arguments centered on the parents cognitive and executive functioning skills. The average IQ scoreis between 90 and 110; Zieglers IQ tested at 66, Fabbrinis at 72.DHS focused in court proceedings on the parents cognitive skills and executive functioning, citing, among other things, the parents failure to read to their sons or use sunscreen on the boys, and feeding them chicken nuggets as a snack. The state also accused the parents of asking both too many and too few questions about parenting matters.

In the agreement, OCR says it found systemic deficiencies related to how DHS works with parents with disabilities, emphasizing that removing children from parents with disabilities based on IQ scores, and similar arbitrary measures, is not acceptable.

According to the settlement, DHS promises to give parents with disabilities the same opportunities to reunify their families as nondisabled parents, such as ensuring they have access to family supports. DHS will also update its nondiscrimination policy, designate an employee to oversee compliance with the ADA, provide training about working with disabled parents to all staff, establish a grievance procedure for complaints alleging disability discrimination, and provide regular progress reports on its efforts to OCR.

While this is not the first time the federal government has investigated a case involving discrimination by the child welfare system against parents with disabilities, it is the first time they have done so in three years.

In November 2012, the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) placed a newborn baby in foster care after Sara Gordon, a mother with an intellectual disability, experienced trouble with feeding and diapering. While many new parents have similar challenges, state officials determined that Gordon was not able to comprehend how to handle or care for the child due to the mothers mental retardation.

Such actions were discriminatory and unlawful, according to a January 2015 joint letter of findings issued by the OCR and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Specifically, the departments investigated Gordons case and found DCF violated both the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA by discriminating against Gordon based on her disability and denying her support and services to assist her in caring for her daughter.

Two months later, Gordon and her daughter were reunited.

In August 2015, DOJ and OCR issued technical assistance to child welfare agencies and courts detailing the legal obligations of the child welfare system when working with disabled parents and their families. According to the guidance, both federal agencies had received several complaints of discrimination by the child welfare system, and that the frequency of such complaints was rising. Further, the guidance noted that child welfare agencies and courts greatly varied in how they support disabled parents and their families.

By the end of the year, OCR entered into a voluntary agreement with the Georgia Department of Human Services related to foster parents with disabilities.

Groups such as the Arc and the National Council on Disability have praised OCR for its recent agreement with Oregon. We are glad to see federal regulators reject stereotypical and discriminatory beliefs about the abilities of parents with [intellectual and developmental disabilites] to care for their children, particularly when considering the history of discrimination, including involuntary sterilization, said Peter Berns, CEO of the Arc.

While efforts like the agreement are important, however, questions remain about how much change it can really effectuate.

Attention to the rights of parents with disabilities is, of course, significant. And involvement by the federal government should hold some weight. Nonetheless, the Oregon agreement is voluntary and does not establish any sort of legal precedent. So far, its unclear if there are penalties if Oregon were to fail to adhere.

Further, unlike the letter of findings issued in the Gordon case, this agreement explicitly states it should not be construed as an admission that the state violated federal disability rights laws.

What happened to Fabbrini and Ziegler, as well as Gordon and countless other couples, must end. Families shouldnt be torn apart because of antiquated beliefs about the fitness of disabled people to raise children. Further, states must be held accountable when they break federal law.

But under the Trump administration, disability rights have been under constant siege. And, by not explicitly stating that Oregon violated both the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA, the federal governments silence in this case may be just another example of the administration not doing enough.

Read more:

An Oregon Couple Can Get Their Kids Back From Foster Care. But Many Disabled Parents Don't Get That Chance. - Rewire.News