Child welfare officials and state troopers have been standing guard outside a Texas maternity ward where a teenage member of a polygamist sect is giving birth.

A spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints says the girl is 18. But state officials say
she's on a list of minors taken into state custody.

A state official says that typically, a child born to a ward of
the state would then also become a ward of the state.

State officials raided the group's compound earlier this month
and took custody of 463 children after allegations of physical and
sexual abuse were raised. Church officials have denied that any
children were abused at the ranch. They say the state's actions are
a form of religious persecution.