Activist judge "doesn't know why"

LG, a 13 year old girl who was about 14 weeks pregnant was denied the right to make her own decision regarding her pregnancy by Florida judge Ronald Alvarez despite delineating understandable and legitimate concerns about going to term:

"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?"

LG had quite a few very good points. Dr. Ethelene Jones who is an expert in obstetrics & gynecology pointed out that an abortion is, indeed, safer than going to term for the girl

"At her age and at her stage of gestation ... her risk of death from an abortion procedure is about 1 in 34,000," said Jones, who has held positions at Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. "The risk of death in pregnancy is about 1 in 10,000."

The girl has been taken for counseling to clinics on 3 occassions where alternatives and risks to abortion were discussed. Yet, when the girl asked Judge Alvarez why she couldn'tmake her own decision he replied "I don't know" (G-d bless her, she responded with "You don't know? You're the judge").

Does Alvarez usually renders decisions without being familiar with applicable state laws or did he just "conscientiously object" to letting the child make a decision he finds morally offensive? Florida State Law allows pregnant minors to make their own decisions regarding their pregnancy (link courtesy of Nick at morons.org):

743.065 Unwed pregnant minor or minor mother; consent to medical services for minor or minor's child valid.--

(1) An unwed pregnant minor may consent to the performance of medical or surgical care or services relating to her pregnancy by a hospital or clinic or by a physician licensed under chapter 458 or chapter 459, and such consent is valid and binding as if she had achieved her majority.

(2) An unwed minor mother may consent to the performance of medical or surgical care or services for her child by a hospital or clinic or by a physician licensed under chapter 458 or chapter 459, and such consent is valid and binding as if she had achieved her majority.

(3) Nothing in this act shall affect the provisions of s. 390.0111.

Florida tried to enact a parental notification law, but there is an injunction against it because it is unconstitutional.


Tags: abortion; reproductive rights; fundamentalism;judicial activism

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