State to woman: Recreational sex only!
Felicia Salazar admits that she's not the best mother in the world.
Last year her 19-month old daughter suffered broken bones and other injuries when the baby was beaten by the father, Roberto Alvarado, 25. He received 15 years in prison.
Salazar, 20, admitted to failing to provide protection and medical care to the girl in a plea bargain reached with Travis County, Tx. prosecutors last week.
But, as Sly Stallone's "Judge Dread" character might say, Texas judges are the law, so in addition to having her kid put into foster care, and ordering 10 years of probation with 100-hours community service, District Judge Charlie Baird told young Felicia to stop having children.
In an interview with Austin's American-Statesman, Baird said Texas law gives judges the discretion to set any conditions of probation deemed reasonable. He also noted hat neither Salazar nor her lawyer, objected.
"When you look her background, the circumstances of this case," he said, "a reasonable condition of her probation was that she not conceive or bear any children."
Salazar's lawyer, Kent Anschutz said he is considering their options. He said his client was concerned about the order. To say the least.
"Although I fully understand the sentiment and perspective of the judge in this matter, I question the enforceability of that particular condition," he told the paper.
Experts say the ruling is probably just a teensy bit unconstitutional. If Salazar became pregnant would she be thrown in jail, given an abortion, or have the child ripped from her bosom at birth?
"The state rarely tries to stop people from becoming parents, so there has not been much occasion to litigate that," Douglas Laycock, a University of Michigan constitutional law professor, told the Statesman. "But undoubtedly there is a constitutional right to have children. I doubt that one conviction for injury to a child is enough to forfeit that right."
