On radio this morning, Glenn reacted to a bizarre story out of Boston involving Justina Pelletier, a 15-year-old girl who has been stuck in a hospital for the last nine months after the medical facility took custody of her when her parents argued against her diagnosis.
“We are talking about the story that is up on The Blaze, ‘It's kidnapping: Hospital takes custody of a girl.’ Imagine your 15-year-old daughter, you take her in because she has a flu, and you are told you have to get out. And you are escorted out by police, and you no longer have custody of your child because you disagree with the diagnosis,” Glenn said exasperatedly. “And so the parents now, for nine months, have been fighting this. The judge put a gag order, so nothing can get out, which is another thing that is absolutely wrong. That is absolutely wrong. “
For the last nine months, Justina Pelletier has been sneaking messages to her parents in Connecticut through folded origami notes.
“It is kidnapping,” Lou Pelletier, the girl’s father, told WTIC-TV.
The local news station investigated the case, for which a judge later issued a gag order, and has the background leading up to the ongoing custody battle.
Watch the report from WTIC-TV below:
Pelletier was diagnosed with mitochondrial disease a few years ago and was able to live a normal life. In February, she got the flu and was taken to Boston Children’s Hospital to see a specialist. It was at that time the problems began.
According to the WTIC report, new team of doctors took over Pelletier’s case and immediately questioned her previous diagnosis and re-diagnosed her with ‘somatoform disorder’ – a mental illness. Her parents, Lou and Linda Pelletier, were not allowed to take their child out of the hospital and were instead escorted out by security. Within four days, they lost custody of Justina.
“That is absolutely wrong. I have a gag order? It's my daughter. I'm not going to speak out for my daughter,” Glenn said. “It is an amazing story happening here in America. This is Russia. This is the stuff that used to happen in the Soviet Union, that we used to say, ‘Man, are we not blessed. That's why this is an evil empire.’”
Glenn explained that this story is particularly important because it speaks to the question of rights. Yesterday, there was a story out of Tennessee involving a father who was arrested for trying to pick his kids up from school on foot instead of in a car. Today, we hear this story of parents who have been stripped of custody for disagreeing with their daughter’s doctor. We need to know our rights, and we need to continue to fight for them, or we are going to see a lot more stories like this one.
“Do you have a right? Who does your child belong to: You or the state? Is the state saying you can parent your child? Look, we will disagree on parenting stuff. We will disagree on healthcare choices. We are going to disagree. But if they're not insane and they're not abusing the child, I make the case that this is a kidnapping. I make the case that this is a re-education of this 15-year-old child, and it is absolutely wrong,” Glenn said. “Why does the state have the right to silence parents and put a gag order in when you say, ‘I want my child back. This is my child. You don't have a right to do this.’ Why does the state have the right to gag you? Could you be gagged?”
“This is a really bad story,” Glenn concluded. “I want you to Facebook this and tweet this story, and get this story out to as many people as you possibly can. It's abhorrent it's been going on since February, and no one's really heard or this story. Nationally, we are not talking about this story.”
