While you are correct about the upheaval for children being torn from what they know and being placed in care, are you really saying that those girls should be left in a situation that has them being married and bearing babies at 13 with no choices about their lives? And if the group has sanctioned and tolerated this, aren't they responsible as a group? I'm not big on demonization , but if a group has condoned the abuse of minors (which this is) then aren't they culpable?
As liberal as I am in my views regarding adult behavior, anything that involves coerced sexual behavior on minors calls for intervention of some sort. And polygamy IS illegal, so there is justification for going in.
Children are incapable for the most part of distinguishing clearly destructive parenting, even those who are raised in the "outside" world. I worked with a lot of minors who just couldn't admit to abuse. They loved their parents, regardless of how bad they were, and blamed themselves for whatever happened to them. And of course, they were terrified of being removed. Imagine the isolation of these children, who have no frame of reference outside of their brainwashed cult.
Ideally, you should be able to work with parents and children together. But when an entire community is based on illegal and abusive practices, I don't know what the prognosis would be for turning these families into what we would consider healthy. Longterm, the best alternative is removal. |
