Ohio court upholds judge's order barring deadbeat dad from fathering more kids

An Ohio appeals court upheld a judge's decision to bar a man from having any more children until he made good on child support payments for those he already has.

Lorain County Probate Judge James Walther issued an order last year prohibiting Asim Taylor from having any children for the five years he was on probation for failing to pay the $100,000 in child support for his four current children.

"I put this condition on for one reason and one reason alone,” Walther told Taylor at the time of his sentencing. “It’s your personal responsibility to pay for these kids.”

If Taylor violates the terms of his probation by impregnating another woman, he faces an automatic jail sentence of one year. Judge Walther also stipulated that he would remove the ban if Taylor paid the child support he already owed.

Taylor's attorney claimed that the prohibition was unconstitutional, because the only way Taylor could meet the order's demand that he "make all reasonable efforts to avoid impregnating a woman" was abstinence.

"The court is stepping into [Taylor's] bedroom," Taylor's attorney argued. "The only way he can insure not impregnating a woman is to not have sex and I do not believe the court has the ability to do that based on the case law. Based on his fundamental rights, I don’t believe the court has the ability to do that."

The Ninth District Court of Appeals disagreed earlier this week, with Judge Donna Carr writing that "the defendant has demonstrated a long-term refusal to support multiple children by multiple women notwithstanding his ability to work and contribute something for their care, an anti-procreation condition is reasonably related to future criminality."

"Taylor has here demonstrated that he is not inclined to support any of his children," she continued. "There is no reason to believe that he would be inclined to support any future children."

Watch a report on Taylor's original sentencing via Fox 8 below.

[Image via Lorain County Probate Court]