"Why can't I make my own decision?" (13-year-old in FL who wants abortion)

Girl: "Why can't I make my own decision?"

Judge: "I don't know."

Girl: "You don't know? Aren't you the judge?"

===

Girl: "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?"

Judge: "Good point."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pabortion30apr30,0,700609.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

Sounds like this 13-year-old girl in Florida who wants an abortion knows how to speak up for herself.

Too bad Jeb needs to declare her uterus state property so he can score some imaginary points with his fundies.

and everyone else asked HOW in the WORLD did the state allow the kid to run away, etc. etc.

This is such a sad case. It's another example of why it's such a wrongheaded idea to try to politicize or legislate, even dogmatize, matters that should be left to the domain of private conscience.

sue

Roe v Wade was so long ago now a lot of the next generation republican pro-life women have no idea what it was like to not have the ability to make decisions about their own bodies.

make her own medical decisions, but she can raise a child?

Not to mention that at her age she's three times more likely to die if she gives birth than if she has an abortion...

that is pretty backwards to me. Really fucked up. How the hell do they think she can care for a baby? I guess they're expecting her to give it up and they can claim a "victory." These people are sick pure and simple.

never given birth to anything. I haven't either, but at least I don't pretend like it's not incredibly physically and emotionally demanding.

Plus, you know, the whole she's got a fairly good chance of dying during child birth (compared to having an abortion.)

is what if they make her go through the pregnancy and during it she dies? What would happen?

In blocking minors from consenting for themselves to abortion. If the minor remains pregnant, there are numerous medical decisions she will have to consent to as the pregnancy goes along, such as consent to blood tests, ultrasounds, AFP screening, etc. And those are all just normal care issues for a normal, uncomplicated pregnancy - never mind this particular minor's increased chances of needing more complex care for complications due to her young age.

Does Florida DFCS intend to provide a guardian to accompany this girl to each and every doctor's appointment to provide adult consent for her? Who gets to choose her doctor anyway? And what about other pregnant minors lacking a legal guardian or parent for this purpose? DFCS didn't even have enough staff to find the girl properly for a month after she ran away. It seems unrealistic to expect one of their overextended staff members to be able to serve this one particular ward exclusively for this purpose.

Then there's the matter of who decides the living arrangements for the baby once it is born. The girl has already testified that she believes DFCS will just take the baby from her and place it into foster care or adoption. What about her right to consent to where her child is placed? And if by some happenstance she's "allowed" to keep the baby, what about the fact that she will, as the child's parent, have to provide parental consent for the baby's medical care? And yet the state is trying to claim that this minor is incapable of providing even her own medical consent. It's entirely illogical and a specious claim for the state to not allow this girl to consent to and acquire an abortion when it allows other minors in similar situations to provide their own medical consent to all other matters pertaining to pregnancy...

Rant over...

It really bunches my undies when scenes like this play out. That girl should be allowed to decide for herself. She's obviously giving it a lot of thought.

But NOOOOOOOOO! Instead she gets strangers who are (according to the state) more qualified to determine FOR HER what she must live with. Do these strangers have to live with the consequences? No. Do they have to die with the consequences? No again.

In my state, a bunch of self-righteous Pro-Choice-As-Long-As-It-Isn't-The-Woman-Making-The-Choice idiots are claiming that the judges who oversee these kinds of hearings approve too many abortions for teens who are afraid of their parents.

So now they've become Pro-Choice-As-Long-As-No-One-Listens-To-The-Woman-And-Does-What-I-Want-Them-To-Instead idiots.

They're all pro-choice. There are situations in which they'd find acceptable as long as the woman can prove to these unqualified strangers' satisfaction that the abortion is being sought for a "good" reason. They're pro-choice only for themselves, not for the women who have to live with the results.

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:hi:

Sid

Do a search for all of this morning's posts while they're still up-- it's only a matter of time. Although, I do agree with John_Wayne777 that society would improve if the fundies were gone. I'm looking forward to the rapture too....

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Seriously.

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I suppose someone thinks I'm the worst sort of trash, higher on the sinner scale than child molesters, who oftentimes are the ones who get 13 year olds pregnant in the first place.

I do support them if there is adequate judicial bypass procedures in place, and if the judicial system is fair on the issue. The latter part is the problem, no doubt, in a lot of communities.

My main reason is that abortion is surgery. A teen can't even get her ears pierced without parental consent. If a child lives in her parents' house, has surgery without their knowledge, then has complications, how can the parents be expected to provide adequate care of their teenager? A teen could get septic and the parents wouldn't necessarily know that she was in danger until her symptoms escalated and she was at the risk of death.

There just needs to be a way for a kid to bypass parental consent if absolutely necessary, but for the most part, I think parents have the right to at least know their daughter is having an abortion, even if they don't want her to. Otherwise, they don't have enough information to keep their child safe and healthy.

can not by law enter into any "Legal" contract. It is a "legal" contract when you sign a paper giving permission for an operation. The whole reason the form is signed is to protect the doctor from "legal" consequences. If a child can not enter into any "Legal" agreement then this all becomes a moot point....