This news article, reporting a teenage girl who’s mother insisted on an abortion, made me sit up and take notice. It was the final sentence though, that really shook me.
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“The girl is now in a psychiatric unit and was quoted by the newspaper La Stampa as having said; ‘You made me kill my baby now I’m going to kill myself.’”
Read the full article here
Now, I don’t know all the ins and outs of this story, but I find the above deeply disturbing. In my opinion nobody should have consent over your body. For the record, I am neither for nor against abortion, I do however expect everyone regardless of age, to have the choice.
It is clear that the child has mental and emotional problems due to this, but what if, in the future, it affects her fertility?
What do you think, did the mother make the right decision? What would you have done?
2 responses so far ↓
Stu Mark // Feb 21, 2007 at 6:25 pm
This is why I love GNMParents, because our writers have so many different voices with different perspectives. A news story like this, no matter how controversial the topic, is important news that should spark debate.
As for the actual topic, it come up in our state of California just recently. There was a public vote as to whether there should be a law requiring doctor’s to require parental notification of a teen’s abortion (teens already have the right to get the abortion without parental permission in our state). The people of California decided that requiring notification to parents would end up a mistake, so no notification for us parents.
Me? I think that’s the right way to go. Fathers commit battery to their daughters over abortions. That’s the bigger picture.
While I am personally saddened when I hear of an abortion, I’m absolutely pro-choice, just as I am for almost all victimless crimes. A person should have a right to do with they want with their body. Yes, I get it, there’s another person growing inside her, but does anyone think that the first few weeks of a fetus make it a person? And does anyone think that there’s a single spot on this entire planet where women get fully treated as equal to men?
As a father of a daughter, I would weep if she got an abortion, but I would weep louder for every teen girl who was beaten or killed by a father who heard of the abortion and lost his mind.
Annie // Feb 22, 2007 at 12:01 am
It sounds like there are two losers in this case, the unborn child and the young girl.
What’s heartbreaking is what she said. I wonder how her mother feels now that she’s in a psych ward.
(Though if the mother forced her to have one against her will…was the mother concerned about her daughter’s health, physical or otherwise? Or was it because of family image or reputation? To “hush up an embarrassing problem”? I’ve actually known close-knit families who might have gone that route. Not knowing the whole story makes it hard to understand the mother’s side of it).
There isn’t a word about the would-be father, either. What happened to him? Did he disappear, did the mother tell him to take a hike, what? It sounds as if he didn’t have any say in the abortion either, if he wanted one.
At what age can we “allow” our children to make their own decisions, esp. if they are so life-changing, such as abortion? Granted, the legal age is 18, but some kids are more mature at 18 and some aren’t. As parents, we are “supposed to know what’s best for our kids”, but what if our intentions aren’t the best?
Not having been in the same situation, I’m not sure what I would do. It would depend on the circumstances (rape?) and how old my daughter was, if she was old enough to take responsibility for her actions. I would support her in whatever decision she wanted, but I wouldn’t force an abortion on her if she didn’t want one. It’s not my body and I’m not the one who would have to physically live with the consequences, if there are any.
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