Abstract
According to the book, Randall Hekman is the father of eight children, and has been a Probate Judge in Kent County, Michigan, in which Grand Rapids is located, since 1974. In 1983, he achieved some notoriety when the case of a pregnant 13-year-old in foster care, whose biological mother would not grant permission for an abortion, came before him. (Michigan law requires parental consent for a foster minor child to have her ears pierced.) He ruled, on the overwhelming weight of the evidence that an abortion would not be in the best interest of the girl, that she could not have one. Some time later, when her foster parents explained the facts of fetal anatomy and behavior, the girl wrote the judge thanking him for his action. The child died as a neonate.