Family Court Shutdown due to Coronavirus Could Cause Termination of Parental Rights for Countless Families

Federal laws require states to initiate termination of parental rights when a child has been in foster care for 15 of the last 22 months. With family courts shutting down across the country due to the Coronavirus outbreak, delaying reunification and adjudication hearings, could families face termination of their parental rights without due process? CPS must have a signed order by a judge in order to remove a child from their home, unless the agency feels a child is in imminent danger, at which time the agency can proceed with an “emergency removal." The agency must then seek the approval of a judge on the following business day. At that time, the family is likely assigned an attorney or has already sought legal counsel to contest the removal and petition the court to return the child home.  With the potential spread of COVID-19, family courts have closed or reduced caseloads. According to the report by Kramer, regarding a statement from the New York State Office of Court Administration, judges are holding hearings by phone and video, only on “essential/emergency” matters. The administration did not respond to the author's request for further comments on their story. Kramer states, according to attorneys who represent parents, judges are continuing to hear petitions from the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) seeking to remove children from their homes and place them in foster care, but they are not willing to hear motions by parents seeking to return children home.

Hospitals Separating Newborn Infants from Mothers due to Coronavirus Fears

Expecting mothers can experience enormous amounts of worry and anxiety. With the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the world, expecting mothers have even more reasons to be worried when hospitals are separating newborns from their mothers within seconds of birth. "I saw her and felt her on my chest for like maybe three to five seconds." This is what mother, Veronica Batton, told KSHB in a story by Lindsay Shively, March 24th.  Veronica Batton emailed her doctor with concerns about a cough. She agreed to be tested for the coronavirus, but the test results were not back by the time she went into labor. According to KSHB, Batton claimed, it took a full week for the results to come back, four days after she gave birth to her baby girl at St. Luke’s East Hospital in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.   While waiting for the test results, Veronica had no contact with her newborn daughter other than the 3-5 seconds directly after delivery, the story reports. Christopher Frizzelle, writing for The Stranger out of Seattle, reports that separating newborns from their mothers if the mother tested positive for COVID-19 is the recommendation of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which is based on CDC recommendations. "But if the mom is a PUI or is COVID-positive, the recommendation from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) is that medical staff should maintain social distancing of at least six feet between the mom and the baby. In other words, 'Not to do skin-to-skin contact. And the mom goes through labor in a mask. Can you imagine going through natural childbirth, breathing, working, in an air mask the whole time? And then we deliver, and we try to keep them separate from each other.'" Gretchen Vogel with Science posed the question in a recent story: “Do newborn babies need to be separated from mothers infected with the new coronavirus?” Vogel reports, “The scant data available have led to apparently contradictory recommendations: Some health authorities, including in China and the United States, recommend isolation of newborns from their infected mothers; others, including the World Health Organization (WHO), strongly recommend breastfeeding and keeping mothers and babies together, while taking precautions such as the mother wearing a mask.”

Unprecedented Response to COVID-19 by Governments Prohibits Physical Contact and Cripples World Economy

After officials at the World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Mar. 11, 2020 that outbreaks of a mutated coronavirus (COVID-19) had become a global pandemic and urged countries to take strong action to stop its spread, the governments of countries representing one-third of the world’s population closed borders, restricted or halted travel between and within countries and ordered healthy people to essentially eliminate physical contact with each other by staying in their homes. The president of the Philippines even gave authority to shoot down and kill anyone violating the country's lockdown orders. The halt to travel and closure of schools, businesses, stores and shopping centers, restaurants, theaters, sports arenas, gyms, beaches, parks and recreation areas, churches, and other places, where children are educated and people conduct business, shop and engage in recreation, sent stock markets into a sudden nosedive and has crippled the world’s economy.

Stop the Fear-Mongering! 12 Medical Scientists Speak Out on COVID19 Responses

Fear over the coronavirus is gripping the nation and world, as within a short period of time life around the globe has drastically changed very suddenly. The main question facing everyone in the U.S. today is: How serious is this? Is the response the government is making right now consistent with the threat this virus presents? Some are proposing that anyone in the media who dares to question the official narrative should be silenced for the sake of "public health." Facebook, for example, took strong actions against Health Impact News by claiming we were publishing "fake news," mainly by publishing the views of Dr. Andrew W. Saul, Editor of the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, who published news about successful intravenous Vitamin C therapy which had started in China. And yet this week, the New York Post reported that the same therapy had started at hospitals in New York City. With the Coronavirus situation affecting virtually every single person on the planet right now, suppressing alternative information that goes against the "mainstream" narrative is a very dangerous precedent, and is a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment which protects freedom of speech and freedom of the press. It is especially concerning when one of my colleagues in the alternative media, without even contacting me directly, publicly demands that we retract one of our articles authored by a medical doctor, simply because this person believes his view of the current situation is the only correct view. I do not pretend to be an expert on medical science, which is why Health Impact News publishes alternative views by medical doctors and other scientists who are experts in their field. During difficult days like the ones currently facing us, I believe the public has a right to read all sides of the issue and make up their own minds. Caution is certainly prudent, but fear? Among all this fear, where is faith in God? The opposite of fear is "faith." Have we lost our way as a nation? Does the phrase inscribed on our currency "In God we Trust" mean anything anymore? Faith in God does NOT mean we will not face difficult times. On the contrary, often those who are most faithful face the most difficult trials in life. Faith in God means we trust that there is a stronger power than ourselves controlling the affairs of humanity, and that if we trust in him, he will give us the strength to endure whatever trials come our way.

Children Being Medically Kidnapped from Parents Due to Coronavirus Scare

With the amount of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. rising every day, the majority of states have issued mandatory social isolation, but does this include isolation from your own children?   Two mothers have recently spoken out about how the Coronavirus pandemic has been used to take away their children against their will, and some judges are ordering the removal of children due to potential exposure to the Coronavirus with their parents. A mother in Oklahoma shared a post on Facebook on March 21, stating, “The police showed up on my doorstep at 10 PM and took my kids from me because I WORK IN A CLINIC.” According to the mother, and court documents shared on the social media site, a judge signed off on an ex parte hearing, approving the Emergency Motion to Modify Custody and for Pick-Up Order Due to Respondent Exposure to Coronavirus. The mother sent this warning to first responders,  “Just a heads up to nurses, doctors, firefighters, police officers, and other first responders who have children and sneaky exes… watch your backs!”