After Christian Parents' Twins are Born at Home, State Removes Babies and Toddler Son for Refusing to Go to Hospital for Check-Up... Why?

Aimee Herd : Dec 4, 2014
Alison Morrow – King 5 News

"They wanted the authority in my household. I told them, 'I'm a Christian and God gave me the authority in my household.'"

(Bellingham, WA)—A King 5 report details the fight Washington state couple, Erica Carey and Cleave Rengo are having with Child Protective Services following the unassisted home birth of twins. (Photo: King 5-Seattle)

"I've done a lot of research about other women who have done it and they said the spiritual experience was so much more wholesome," said Erica about her most recent birth (the couple already had a toddler son). "It was just us. We wanted to preserve that sanctity and sacredness in our birth."

Sanctity of Erica's womb was the reason the couple also chose not to have an ultrasound, and so did not realize until the birth that there were actually two babies.

"I said, 'Erica look!' and she looked at her belly. There was an outline of a small baby in her belly. That's when I discovered we were having twins," Cleave told King 5 News.

At the time, all three children were under a year and Erica was breastfeeding each one. However, at the report of a third party, paramedics arrived at the couple's door urging them to bring the children to the hospital for a check-up.

But Erica and Cleave did not want to risk the twins' "fragile immune systems" at a hospital filled with germs.

The following day began a series of visits by Washington's Child Protective Services. When CPS noticed some eczema on the toddler, which the couple had been treating with natural remedies, they confiscated all three children.

Cleave explained, "They wanted the authority in my household. I told them, 'I'm a Christian and God gave me the authority in my household.'"

The couple's attorney notes in a recently-filed petition that—although there had been "calls to the home about domestic issues prior to the children's birth" there was apparently "no evidence of clear and present danger" to the children.

The couple is currently only allowed a visit with their children once-a-week.

It should be noted that Erica Carey and Cleave Rengo have not obtained a marriage license, choosing instead to only "say their vows before God" according to the King 5 report.