Easter Service, Protest Held Outside Wayside Sunday

A large crowd gathered outside Wayside in Framingham Sunday at 3 p.m. for an Easter service and protest for Justina Pelletier.

Organizers held the service as "Justina will not be able to attend, nor will she be able to see her family on this holiday. 75 young people are at Wayside.  74 will be allowed to see their families on Easter.  One will not – that one is Justina.  She is treated differently from every other patient at the facility."

Justina has been at Wayside Youth & Family Services in Framingham since January 2014.

The custody case has garnered national attention and created a FreeJustina movement. A judge recently decided she should remain under the care of Massachusetts' Children & Families division.

Pelletier, who has been diagnosed and treated by Tufts Medical Center doctors for mitochondrial disorder, a rare genetic disease, was sent to Boston Children’s Hospital for a bout with the flu in February 2013. Her regular doctor was unavailable at the time.

Doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital reportedly disagreed with the diagnosis and instead diagnosed Pelletier with somatoform disorder, a mental illness characterized by pain and gastrointestinal symptoms that have no identifiable physical cause.

The Massachusetts Department of Children and Families then took custody of Justina, when the Pelletiers, who live in West Hartford, CT., disagreed with the Boston hospital's treatment.

Pelletier has only been allowed one, one hour supervised visit per week with her mom and dad and they have not been permitted to take photographs of their daughter, reported newlife.com

Following new legal pressure asserted by Liberty Counsel, the Massachusetts Department of Children & Families permitted the most recent visitation to be unsupervised. 

Rev. Pat Mahoney, a nationally known pro-life activist, accompanied Lou and Linda Pelletier to visit Justina.

Justina, now 15, told her parents and Rev. Mahoney, “I feel like a prisoner," reported lifenews.com.

Justina also asked, “Why can’t I go home with my parents?”

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Thanks to Rebecca Buchbinder for the photos in this report.