WOMAN with mild learning difficulties forced to undergo intelligence test to prove she is smart enough to get married.
SOCIAL workers have banned a young woman from her wedding 48-hours before she was due to walk up the aisle after deciding she was not intelligent enough to get married.
Kerry Robertson, 17, who is five-months pregnant was preparing to marry Mark McDougall when social services told her she would have to cancel her big day because she "did not understand the implications of getting married".
She told the Daily Mail: "I am still so upset about everything. I know what marriage is. It is when two folks want to spend the rest of their lives together. I love Mark and I want to get married to him."
Miss Robertson has mild learning difficulties and has been in the care of her grandmother since she was nine-months-old after her parents were unable to look after her. Her welfare is overseen by social workers at Fife council.
In January this year, she met Mr McDougall, 25. The couple moved in together decided to marry when they found out Miss Robertson was pregnant.
Mr McDougall told the Daily Mail social workers from the council came to the couple’s flat two days before the wedding and told them if they went ahead, they would be breaking the law
"Despite arguing with the social workers that we loved one another and didn't want our baby to be born to unmarried parents, they wouldn't budge,” Mr McDougall said.
Under Scottish law, a registrar may refuse to marry a couple if he believes one or both the parties lack the mental capacity to understand what the institution of marriage is about.
Ms Robertson will undergo a psychologist's assessment to determine if she is too unintelligent to get married. The couple said they are concerned their baby may be taken away from them if the council decides they are not smart enough to be parents.
Mr McDougall said Miss Robertson's learning difficulties are not severe and the decision was cruel.
'It's true she is not very academic,' he said. 'But she is nowhere near as stupid as social services are making out.
"She is a loving caring person. She can also read and write, although not very well, and was going to college to catch up.
"I didn't even know she had learning difficulties until we'd been dating for two months.
"For the first time in her life Kerry was truly happy so we cannot understand what all the fuss is about
news.com.au 13 Sep 2009
So .... She was allowed to breed but NOT get married.
Raising a child requires more 'smarts' than getting married.
But then again who cares about the child, certainly NOT Child Services.
A mildly retarded child may make a great slave for the industry, i.e. cheap labour.
The agency DOES NOT CARE for her child.
By the same attitude, if she is not allowed to be married she should be sterilised.
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