From Eugene at VC comes this bit of news from the Austin American-Statesman that Travis County Judge Charlie Baird has ordered Bristol Palin, 17 Felicia Salazar, 20, to stop having children as a condition of her probation.

On Sept. 5, state District Judge Charlie Baird sentenced Salazar, who had no criminal history, to 10 years of probation after she reached a plea bargain with prosecutors…. In addition to requiring Salazar to perform 100 hours of community service and to undergo a mental health assessment and setting other typical conditions, Baird told Salazar not to have any more children.

Having paid a great deal of attention in 8th grade health class, it strikes me that the judge’s order is misdirected.  You see, once a woman gets pregnant, having a child is a somewhat inevitable outcome.  Since we know what causes pregnancy, the key to fulfilling Judge Baird’s purpose comes a little earlier in the process.  This is another example of why judges are never good at making science-related decisions.

Volokh opines that while a condition such as this might be ill-advised, it is nonetheless a constitutional condition:

I can’t speak to Texas law, but generally probation conditions are constitutional — even when they restrict constitutional rights such as the freedom of speech or the freedom of association — whenever they are “reasonably related to legitimate penological interests,” a test that is easy to meet. The theory is that if the defendant is imprisoned, she would lose a great many of her constitutional rights, under the same standard, and the rule should be the same if the judge gives her probation instead of a prison sentence. And this theory would seem to apply to the right to have children as well: If you’re imprisoned, you have no constitutional right to have children or even to have sex, so a court should likewise be able to impose a similar restriction if you’re put on probation.

While Eugene’s point about distinguishing Texas law from that of a subdivision of the United States is well taken, I’m not sure that he’s otherwise accurate.  Prisoners are granted conjugal visits.  While we may not be certain what transpires in those private trailers, it would be fair to assume that there are some prisoners whose loneliness is sated.  Then, of course, there are the occasional prison guard dalliances, though these are frowned upon, despite their being considered a perk of the job by some.

When a female inmate is found to be with child in prison, what’s a warden to do?  While stories of female prisoners being coerced into having abortions, no doubt by the many liberals staffing prisons, the child will eventually appear if the inmate resists these hints.  The warden can’t order the child back in.  Neither can the judge, although some believe they can.

But Eugene’s view differs slightly when the issue shifts from pregnancy to sex.

Some might ask whether a judge could likewise restrict probationers from having sex. The answer, I think, is that the same general rule would apply, but it would usually yield a different result as to probationers’ sexual relations than as to prisoners’ sexual relations, since there’s not much of a legitimate penological interest served by a “no sex even when you’re outside prison” rule.

Science has discovered a link between the act and the outcome, and it’s time that this link be universally recognized.  While science has also discovered a way to break the chain of the inevitable, there are powerful forces at work to compel people to eschew such scientific miracles as against certain fundamental moral precepts.

There are most assuredly people who should not have children.  A lot of them, by my count.  And due to my concern for children, who suffer abuse at the hands of, or under the less than vigilant eye of, such people, I fully support the inventive ways of courts to protect children from these people.  Unfortunately, I’m less than clear that this is an effective method, and even less sanguine that this condition falls within a judge’s authority.

But I don’t fault Judge Baird for trying.