Protest over judge’s baby ruling on mother aged 14

A JUDGE sparked a row yesterday by ruling that a schoolgirl who gave birth at 14 without telling the father can have the baby adopted.

Mr Justice Cohen was accused of “state overreach” after saying it was in the baby’s best interests that her 15-year-old father never knew she was born.

He was said to have set a “very concerning precedent” after deciding the father’s history of drug abuse and criminal and anti-social behaviour meant he might harass mother and child.

The girl, now six months old, was born after the teenagers met at school and had sex twice. The mother was 13 and the father 14.

They lost touch when the father was excluded from school and the mother, who is believed to live in the north-east of England, did not even know she was pregnant until her waters broke. IT’S fair to say every family has its problems. But in this case a new arrival has sparked individual tragedy.

A father will never know his progeny. A mother lost her child. Grandparents failed in their duty. And a newborn is condemned to rattle around the care system.

But this is no isolated case. It is a microcosm of broken Britain.

Towns long forgotten by those elected to Westminster have faced more than gradual decline in recent years.

There are places where unemployment is the norm and deprivation is endemic.

Nowhere is this truer than the North-east, where this saga is thought to have taken place. This makes free choices. The “haves” have fared just fine in this new climate, using their money and education to game the new system to their advantage.

But for the “have nots” in areas left behind the picture has been less rosy. Figures show children born from teenage pregnancy do worse at school, suffer more illness and are more likely to go on to be socially isolated and deprived themselves.

It could be a Shakespearean tragedy – only bleaker and with less hope. But Shakespeare’s tragedies do at least teach us something about ourselves.

Perhaps this tragedy may yet remind our politicians that their duty is to serve us all.