A Washington judge has denied a woman a divorce from the husband who beat her after she disclosed her pregnancy to the court. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the AP report that Judge Paul Bastine took the unusual step in order to, er, preserve the family unit for the unborn child:

A Spokane woman trying to divorce her estranged husband two years after he was jailed for beating her has been told by a judge she can't get out of the marriage while she's pregnant.

The case pits a first-year attorney who argues that state law allows any couple to divorce if neither spouse challenges it against a longtime family law judge who asserts that the rights of the unborn child in this type of case trump a woman's right to divorce.

"There's a lot of case law that says it is important in this state that children not be illegitamized," Spokane County Superior Court Judge Paul Bastine told The Spokesman-Review newspaper.

The Left will take this story and decry the use of a fetus to deny a woman's right to divorce an abusive husband, but in truth every party to this action is, to be blunt, an idiot. The woman's unborn child isn't her husband's; the father reportedly is a gang-banger who shot and blinded an old man in 1998, making her claims of avoiding violence a bit hypocritical at best. The mother conceived the child while still married to the man who beat her. And Judge Bastine thinks that keeping all three of these so-called adults tied together serves the best interests of the child?

If Bastine wanted to do something positive for the unborn child, he'd have Child Protective Services remove the baby from the almost-terminally stupid mother and her violent paramours and start an adoption process instead. At the least, he should grant the divorce as quickly as possible. The longer these idiots stay together, Bastine included, the greater chance they can create more mischief towards the child.

What are judges in Washington drinking these days, anyway?

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» i know i'll get in trouble for this one from the dark goddess of replevin speaks
Look, guys. The press is running amok about Judge Paul Bastine's decision to deny poor beautiful Shawnna (hereafter, "PBS") of Spokane County a dissolution until her pregnancy is over. From much of the reporting he sounds like he was really crazy, bu... [Read More]

Tracked on January 12, 2005 9:57 PM