Skier’s custody case becomes women’s-rights cause

Skier’s custody case becomes women’s-rights cause

NEW YORK (AP) — When Olympic skier Bode Miller handed his infant son to the baby’s mother in a courtroom this week, she was handed a victory – for now – in a case that became a rallying point for women’s-rights advocates.

Former Marine and firefighter Sara McKenna was looking to enhance her career opportunities and her unborn son’s future, by her account, when she moved last winter from Miller’s home state of California to New York to go to Columbia University.

But a New York judge this May called her move “irresponsible” and “reprehensible,” deeming that McKenna’s move was less about bettering herself than about bettering her position in the legal dispute.

That set off alarms among women’s groups and civil libertarians, who said the ruling wiped away pregnant women’s rights to make decisions as basic as where to live.

That ruling was reversed this month, and the 9-month-old boy is with McKenna at least until a Dec. 9 hearing.