SAN ANTONIO - When Texas child welfare authorities released statistics showing nearly 60 percent of the teen girls taken from a polygamist sect's ranch were pregnant or had children, they seemed to prove the allegation that the sect commonly pushed girls into marriage and sex.

But in the past week, the state has twice been forced to admit that "girls" who gave birth in state custody are actually adults. One, 22, claims she showed state officials a Utah birth certificate shortly after she and more than 400 minors were seized from the west Texas ranch in April.

The state has in custody two dozen other young mothers and others whose ages are in dispute. If most of them also turn out to be adults, it would be a severe blow to the state's claim of widespread sexual abuse.

If it turns out the other 24 disputed minors are adults, the number of actual 14- to 17-year-old girls with children could drop to five or six. That would amount to about one-fifth of the girls of that age that were found at the ranch -- substantially higher than the teen pregnancy average in Texas, but far from 60 percent.

"It's not widespread," said Rod Parker, a spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the renegade Mormon sect that runs the ranch.

"We are working as quickly as possible to sort this out," said Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for Child Protective Services.

All 463 Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints children removed from the Yearning For Zion Ranch have been in state custody for six weeks and are scattered in foster care facilities around the state.

Crimmins said he's not sure how long it will take to resolve the disputed-minor cases. Child Protective Services has complained that sect members refused to cooperate, constantly changing answers or refusing to answer questions.

Parker claims the state ignored evidence the young mothers presented, including birth certificates and Social Security cards. He said that with their long braided hair, makeup-free faces and pioneer dresses, they look very young.

"They're deliberately ignoring official records that show these mothers are not minors," he said, citing the Utah birth certificate showing Louisa Bradshaw Jessop was born in 1986.

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