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"Not mature enough for an abortion."

A 16-year-old was told she was not mature enough to have an abortion.

 

 

 

By MELISSA WELLHAM

In yet another infallible application of logic regarding abortion laws in the United States, a judge has told a 16-year-old girl that she’s “not sufficiently mature” to decide whether or not she should have an abortion.

However, the court decided that she was was definitely grown-up enough to raise a kid of her own.

The Nebraska Supreme Court denied the 16-year-old’s request for an abortion. Her case was held when she was 10 weeks pregnant.

The girl – who is referred to as ‘Anonymous 5’ – is a foster child, and spoke sensibly during the court hearing, saying that she was worried about having to become a mother as she did not have the financial resources, and could not be “the right mom that I would like to be right now.”

Nebraska is one of the only eight states in America that require girls who are under 17 years of age to get permission from a parent or guardian before obtaining an abortion. Because Anonymous 5 is actually a ward of the state, the rights of her biological parents were dissolved, and there is no one individual to grant her permission.

Judge Bataillon said that Anonymous 5’s foster parents could grant permission as her guardian – although this was disputed by defence attorney involved in the case. The teenager reportedly said that she did not want to involve her deeply religious foster parents as she believed she would lose her place with them if they found out about her pregnancy.

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According to Nebraskan law, parental involvement can be waived in specific circumstances, but there needs to be  “clear and convincing evidence” that “the minor is sufficiently mature and well-informed” enough to make the decision to have an abortion.

The judge served in the past on a committee for an anti-abortion group based in Omaha.

Maturity that might be indicated by, say, a minor managing to navigate the legal processes Anonymous 5 has been through?

But apparently Judge Bataillion – who reportedly also served in the past on a committee for an anti-abortion group based in Omaha – wasn’t swayed.

And now, a 16-year-old girl who is not in a financial position to raise a child, who is scared that she may lose the roof over her head, and who has suffered abuse and neglect at the hands of her parents in the past, isn’t mature enough to get an abortion. She isn’t well-informed enough about what an abortion entails.

But she is grown-up enough to become a mother.

Nice one, Nebraska.

What do you think of the court’s ruling?