Justice: Inconceivable Sentence

The crime to which Debra Ann Forster, 18, of Mesa, Ariz., pleaded guilty last week: leaving her two sons, ages six months and 18 months, alone in a sweltering apartment for nearly three days. The highly unusual sentence handed down by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Lindsay Ellis Budzyn: Forster must use birth control for the rest of her childbearing years.

To ensure that she complies with the order, Forster is required to periodically provide written evidence to her probation officer. Forster, who married at 15, said she had been overwhelmed by the job of taking care of the boys after her marriage broke up. Both children, as well as a daughter born in March, have since been given up for adoption. Asserting that the "state has no right to interfere" in Forster's freedom to become pregnant, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Catholic Church will protest the order.