The South Florida Sun-Sentinel has acquired a tape of the hearing before Judge Alvarez which resulted in a thirteen year old girl being enjoined from having an abortion. In it, the girl asks bluntly why she is not allowed to make her own decision, asserts her right to control her own life, and shows every sign of being aware of the relevant issues:
L.G., who told [Judge] Alvarez she had run away at least five times from her youth shelter, maintained, "It would make no sense to have the baby.""I don't think I should have the baby because I'm 13, I'm in a shelter and I can't get a job," the girl said as Alvarez and her guardian ad litem, assigned to shepherd her in the legal system, questioned her.
L.G. laid out different reasons for wanting an abortion.
"DCF would take the baby anyway," she said, but later added: "If I do have it, I'm not going to let them take it."
She also questioned the health risk of carrying the fetus to term.
"Since you guys are supposedly here for the best interest of me, then wouldn't you all look at that fact that it'd be more dangerous for me to have the baby than to have an abortion?" she asked. Alvarez called that "a good point."
A medical expert testified that her chances of dying during an abortion were 1 in 34000, while her chance of dying if the pregnancy continued was 1 in 10000. If she knows that risk and wants to avoid it, then I don't see why the state should be trying to stop her.
3 comments:
I don't see why the state should be trying to stop her.
Because the fanatics believe that when an egg and sperm join it become a soul that will be in heaven. I can only imagine this means every miscarried baby will be alive and well in heaven also.
Thinking should be a requirement for adults as well as children.
Posted by Anonymous : 5/02/2005 12:48:00 AM
I don't see why the state should be trying to stop her.
Because the fanatics believe that when an egg and sperm join it become a soul that will be in heaven. I can only imagine this means every miscarried baby will be alive and well in heaven also.
Thinking should be a requirement for adults as well as children.
Posted by Anonymous : 5/02/2005 12:48:00 AM
"If she knows that risk and wants to avoid it, then I don't see why the state should be trying to stop her."
It's a shame that all this knowledge and time and money weren't put into her right to have a safe childhood in the first place.
Besides, she doesn't have the maturity to give informed consent to an abortion - the termination of her own child, something adult women struggle with deeply. She wouldn't be able to consent to any other major medical procedure.
Heck, we're talking about a child to young to buy a lotto ticket.
Posted by Muerk : 5/02/2005 11:13:00 AM
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