A judge in Washington state has refused to grant a divorce to a pregnant woman. What's even more absurd about the judge's ruling is that she left her husband two years ago after he went to jail for beating her. The father of the child is her current boyfriend, who she wants to marry.

Shawnna Hughes' husband was convicted of abuse in 2002. She separated from him after the attack and filed for divorce last April. She later became pregnant by another man and is due in March.

Her husband, Carlos, never contested the divorce, and the court commissioner approved it in October. But the divorce papers failed to note that Hughes was pregnant, and when the judge found out, he rescinded the divorce.

"There's a lot of case law that says it is important in this state that children not be illegitimized," Superior Court Judge Paul Bastine told The Spokesman-Review newspaper on Thursday.

Women are allowed to divorce even under Sharia law, which is the strictest law we can think of. What's wrong with this Judge?