Legal Action for Women

PRESS RELEASE . . . . PRESS RELEASE . . . . PRESS RELEASE . . .

Suffer the Little Children.

Ending the unwarranted tragic separation of children from their mothers in UK and US

 Tuesday 7 June, 6.30-8.30pm, Grimond Room, Portcullis House, Westminster

To arrange interviews call: Anne Neale or Kim Sparrow 020 7482 2496

law@allwomencount.net   http://legalactionforwomen.net

 Launch of dossier by Legal Action for Women documenting cases of children unjustifiably separated from their mother or kinship carer, adopted by strangers, put into care or in the hands of violent fathers. And comparative UK-US evidence presented by RICHARD WEXLER, Executive Director of the US National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. Mr Wexler has been debunking common myths on child protection for over 40 years.  His evidence is backed by US and UK research which has so far been ignored.

The number of ‘looked after’ children in England is the highest it’s been since 1985.  There were applications to take 21,666 children into care in the year ending March 2016.  1 in 5 children under five are referred to children’s services; 1 in 19 investigated; the figures are even higher if over 5s are taken into account.  Adoptions are higher than in any other European country, at their highest since the start of data collection.  5,050 children were adopted in 2014, a 58% increase from 2010.  96% of adoptions are without parental consent.  The rates of children in care in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland is even higher than in England,

Suffer the Little Children, documents the experiences of 39 mothers with 67 children. Its key findings are:

In 78% of cases the mother suffered domestic violence. This was not taken seriously and often used against the mother.

• In 36% of cases children were in care or adopted; 18% adopted.
• In 22% of the cases the children were placed with their father, including fathers accused of violence.
• In another 20% of cases the mother was disputing the father’s contact, usually because of violence.
• 40% of the mothers are women of colour and/or immigrant women.

The government Children and Social Work Bill, which has its 2^nd reading on 14 June, aims to make it even easier for children to be taken away from their biological families.  A child protection social worker has warned against the government’s latest plans:

“The ‘undeserving poor’ have lost their council homes; lost their benefits and lost their community services; why not make it easier to lose their children too?”

Richard Wexler has this to say:

“There is no understanding of the harm of removal. For a young child, it can be an experience akin to a kidnapping . . . Foster care is an extremely toxic intervention.  For the overwhelming majority of children it is an undue risk to children’s safety.” 

Given the warning against the Children and Social Work Bill, will MPs come to hear Mr Wexler’s expert evaluation?  Will they hear from mothers struggling to protect their children?

Facebook event

PRESS RELEASE:   STOP GAGGING ORDER vs MOTHER SEPARATED FROM HER BABY  — Defend mothers’ right to speak out against injustice in the family courts. Defend children’s right to a mother’s care.

Protest 9am on Friday 23 October 2015 outside the Royal Courts of Justice,  Called by: Queer Strike, Legal Action for Women, Single Mothers’ Self-Defence.  Tel: 020 7482 2496

On Friday 23 October 2015, the High Court will hear an application to lift a gagging order against the mother of a 15-month-old baby girl who was forcibly removed from her care.

The order is so draconian that it not only prevents the name of the child and her parents from being published, it stops the mother from speaking to anyone about the case, even anonymously, and from getting support from family, friends or anyone else, until the child is 18.  While the national media has reported on the case, the mother has been prevented from telling her side of the story.

This is a total breach of human rights, aimed at silencing mothers unjustly treated by     the family courts.  It prevents public scrutiny of the courts at a time when more and     more children are wrongfully taken away from their mothers.  Children are being given to better-off fathers (even those who have a history of domestic violence), taken into care or put up for adoption.

The order was issued on 30 April 2015 by family court judge Ms Justice Russell who removed the toddler from her mother’s care and gave her to her father and his (male) partner. And while the father had extensive contact throughout the proceedings, the mother is allowed only limited supervised contact. (Ruling here)

The child was thriving with her mother but the men claimed they had a surrogacy-type arrangement, which the mother denied. She said that both she and the father wanted a child, that they had agreed she would be the primary carer while the father (who donated the sperm) would be involved in the child’s care.

Once the baby was born, the father and his partner made a surrogacy claim. But there can be no surrogacy without the mother’s consent. While denying she was ruling on a surrogacy claim, the judge dismissed the mother’s testimony saying that the mother had “deluded herself” about the nature of the agreement with the men.  As a result the media has reported on it as a surrogacy case.

To justify the inevitable harm caused to the child by the separation from her mother, the judge claimed that the mother was damaging her child, describing her bond with the child as “stifling”, and criticising her for breastfeeding on demand and co-sleeping (as mothers have done for centuries!), and for having delayed getting a job.  The child’s relationship with the gay couple was judged more important to her “identity” than her relationship with her own mother.

The disparity in wealth is also stark: the men had top legal representation throughout while the mother was mainly unrepresented since there is no longer legal aid for private family cases and she could not afford a lawyer for much of the time.

We cannot conceive of a more devastating blow and breach of human rights for a woman who has carried a child for nine months, given birth, and successfully breastfed and cared for her for 15 months, than to have that child wrenched from her by the court. And nothing can be more devastating for a baby than to be wrenched from her mother. Lgbtq mothers and fathers have fought for years to be recognised as parents and carers, and we are appalled that it is a gay couple who has sought to destroy the relationship between mother and child.  To take a breastfeeding child from her loving mother is cruel and sadistic, and causes life-long trauma to the baby and the mother.  To treat a non-consenting mother as a mere surrogate for men (gay or straight) is deeply sexist and brings back pater familias – men (gay or straight) in charge of women and children.

This gagging order must be lifted so that this mother and others like her can speak out against injustice, and decisions made by the courts, which have such a devastating impact on children and their primary carers, can be subjected to public scrutiny.

Queer Strike, Legal Action for Women, Single Mothers’ Self Defence

Crossroads Women’s Centre, 25 Wolsey Mews, London NW5 2DX

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