"The Best Interest of Me"

The 13 year old girl declared by Florida [anybody surprised?] as having no personal control over her womb is a feisty one. The fact that this girl is playing off of our conceptions of who she should be and how she should act is fantastic. She is not the docile, reluctant, passive receptor of the State's will, or even of society in general, we expect a hard-on-her-luck 13 year old girl who lives in a foster home to be. She raises her voice, but more importantly, she refuses to allow others to raise their voice for her.

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

That was the blunt question to a judge from a pregnant 13-year-old girl ensnared in a Palm Beach County court fight over whether she can have an abortion.

"I don't know," Circuit Judge Ronald Alvarez replied, according to a recording of the closed hearing obtained Friday.

"You don't know?" replied the girl, who is a ward of the state. "Aren't you the judge?"

...

"I think if I want to make the decision, it's my business and I can do that," she told the judge.

The DCF is the teen's legal guardian after she was taken away from her parents for abuse or neglect. State law allows minors to have abortions without notifying their guardians. Experts say the law extends to wards of the state, raising the question of why this girl's decision has ended up before a judge.

...

"The Department of Children and Families has the custodial responsibility to do what is in the best interest of the child," the department said.

...

L.G., who told 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.

...

"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."

...

"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."

...

She had sex with "a boy" but refused to disclose his name to Alvarez saying: "That's not really necessary."

...

"To say that I am angry at that [the DCF's handling of the situation] would be an understatement," Alvarez said. "To rush into this court on an emergency basis because this child is pregnant and wants an abortion, I don't know where our priorities in life are. The priority should have been to make certain that an order to take her into custody was issued as soon as possible, and that she was found and taken off of the streets or wherever she was. But nobody cared."

As always, a core question of moral authority in abortions is raised: by forcing every woman, every time, to carry a child to term, which supposed "life" are we protecting? What exactly is the benefit to the state of Florida or the welfare state of America benefit more by forcing this girl to go to term, under the chaos of her unshielded unwielding life? Will that child have any chance at "normalcy," or even an safe existence in those circumstances? Will the mother, this 13 year old, be able to handle that, psychologically, emotionally, financially? The likely answers to any of the above are "No."

It's also interesting to note that Judge Alvarez has brought to light the societal issue of this girl's situation, how she was born into abuse and neglect and how the State attempted but failed to rectify that.

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Picked up from atrios, who picked it up from bitchphd, who picked it up from her places.