Can the judge take my child if I am unvaccinated?
The short answer in Maricopa County, Arizona is that I do not know. What I do know is that a judge just did exactly that in Chicago. I have not read the court’s order but I did read the Washington Post article as cited here. I have not heard of a judge doing anything like this in Arizona. Judges do have a right to analyze the best interests factors when they decide a child’s living schedule and who makes decisions for them. Those factors include health so I can see a Judge deciding that it is physically unsafe for a child to have an unvaccinated parent. Parents have a duty to take care of their children. When parents are married the court rarely intervenes in that relationship unless there is something extreme going on such as abuse, unfitness, danger, or neglect. Divorced parents are more under a microscope especially if they are having disputes. Normal disputes that would have been handled in the family home are elevated to the courts’ attention in certain circumstances. One of those circumstances is when parents disagree about a major decision such as school, health and vacations. If you are married, you might think it strange that a court intervenes in your life for these decisions but that is what happens when parents bring their arguments to the court. So, if one parent believes an unvaccinated parent is a danger to their child, I can see this case coming to a court for assistance and I am sure that something similar has happened but it just has not yet risen to the level of being in the media. So, the short answer to this question remains the same. I do not know what a judge could or would do, especially as the pandemic continues to rage and children are dying.
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