The Story of Unborn Baby B.
Court Orders Baby Be Given Up at Birth

One of society's great failures is a lack of forethought. Protective legislation is almost only ever passed following a disaster, and only then if it's a widely publicized disaster. Why wasn't Megan's Law passed before Megan was killed? Why do we still not have mandatory fingerprint background checks for anyone working with children? In fact, the first documented case of child protection in the US didn't occur until 1874, when an eight-year-old girl was removed from an abusive mother ... under the protection of those laws established to protect animals from abuse.

It is this lack of forethought that makes the Baby B case stand out, for its very grounding is in forethought. It is the exception to the rule. In this case, the court decided in favor of protecting unborn LaToya B. before she was abused by her mother, Debbie B., who had shown a history of abuse toward her seven other children and three step-children. Read the story as it unfolds in the following press clippings from 1988 and '89, and see how NYC government finally catches up in 2008.

• Matter of Unborn Baby B., Family Court, Judge Barone
  New York Law Journal
  Friday, July 15, 1988

• Unborn is Ruled Abused Child
  Daily News
  July 21, 1988

• Judge: Mom Must Give up Unborn Child
  New York Post
  July 21, 1988

• Mom's Desperate Plea
  She begs to keep her unborn child
  New York Post
  July 22, 1988

• Surrender Baby at Birth, Judge Tells a Woman
  Mother Has Abused 7 Children, Court Says
  The New York Times
  July 22, 1988

• Woman May Lose Parental Rights
  Gannett Westchester Newspapers
  Thursday, August 10, 1989

• Court Strips Woman of Parental Rights
  Mother admits no recent contact with daughter taken at birth.
  Gannett Westchester Newspapers
  December 9, 1989

• Child Welfare Tightens Law on Removal
  The New York Times
  May 15, 2008