Order removing baby from foster moms under review

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah state child welfare officials Wednesday were reviewing a ruling by a juvenile court judge who ordered a baby taken from lesbian foster parents and instead placed with a heterosexual couple, supposedly for the child’s well-being.

Judge Scott Johansen’s order Tuesday in the central Utah city of Price raised concerns at the Utah Division of Child and Family Services, agency spokeswoman Ashley Sumner said.

Its attorneys plan to review the decision and determine what options they have to possibly challenge the order.

The ruling came during a routine hearing for April Hoag land and Beckie Peirce. They are part of a group of same-sex married couples who were allowed to become foster parents in Utah after last summer’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that made gay marriage legal across the country, Sumner said.

State officials don’t keep an exact count but estimate there are a dozen or more foster parents who are married same-sex couples.

Attempts to reach Hoagland and Peirce on Wednesday were unsuccessful, but the couple told KUTV that they are distraught after the ruling that calls for the baby girl they have been raising for three months to be taken away within a week.

They said Johansen cited research that children do better when they are raised by heterosexual couples. Hoagland believes the judge actually imposed his religious beliefs.

“We are shattered,” she told the Salt Lake City TV station. “It hurts me really badly because I haven’t done anything wrong.”

The judge is precluded by judicial rules from discussing pending cases, Utah courts spokeswoman Nancy Volmer said.

A full transcript of his ruling has not been made public and may not be, because court records of cases involving foster children are kept private to protect the kids, Sumner said.