Abortion Laws Protect Pregnant Teen Who Paid for Beating
A teenager who couldn’t get an abortion at seven months because her state bans late-term abortions has been accused of hiring someone to beat her up - in hopes it would terminate the pregnancy.
But now a judge says the abortion laws of the state protect her from prosecution for her part in the beatings.
Except those are the same laws that didn’t protect her in the first place. The girl, seventeen, allegedly paid a twenty-one-year-old male acquaintance $150 to help her terminate her pregnancy because her boyfriend was going to break up with her if she didn’t get an abortion. Possibly one of the worst reasons for an abortion - I’ll grant you that.
The girl was struck and bit - leaving marks on her belly and neck - but the baby survived to be delivered in August. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, prosecutors argued that the girl was guilty of a second-degree felony charge of soliciting murder because she was seeking an abortion from someone other than a medical practitioner.
What’s troubling here is not only the fact that the girl could not access a late term abortion in a legal manner, but Utah law which requires parental notification (and scares the dickens out of teen girls)Â and parental consent . . . which may well have prevented her from an earlier abortion.
Still, the judge says abortion is still legal in Utah, and he gave the girl a pass. Attempts were made to ban abortion outright in Utah earlier this year, with exceptions being made for cases of rape, incest and permanent physical harm to the mother. It failed when conservative lawmakers said the state could not afford to defend court challenges to the law. The same law passed in the nineties in Utah, only to be overturned as unconstitutional. According to the Tribune, today’s law “defines an abortion as any and all procedures undertaken to kill a live unborn child and includes all procedures undertaken to produce a miscarriage and exempts women who seek or obtain abortions from prosecution.”
The child, by the way, is living in state custody - which seems fair considering the current circumstances (her mom on trial), but she is fighting for custody. Should she get her back?
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Tags: abortion, incest, Jeanne Sager, parental consent, parental notice, pro-choice, rape, right to choose, right to life, utah
9 Comments
jenny tries too hard commented on Oct 15 09 at 10:33 amIf the state bans late-term abortions (which makes sense to me, honestly, as the sister of a lovely young woman born at 28weeks gestation) and defines the hiring of a thug to beat and kick the girl in the abdomen at 7months gestation as an abortion, wouldn’t it still be an illegal late-term abortion? Isn’t the point of banning or restricting the practice of late-term abortions that the fetus is viable or nearly viable and has medically documented response to pain and trauma? It’s clear that what she sought was a late-term abortion. If it was illegal for her to seek a late-term abortion from her doc, it should be clear that it was illegal for her to seek a late-term abortion from Johnny Hits-A-Lot. What a crazy decision.
Bunny commented on Oct 15 09 at 1:18 pmI’m not sure if flouting the law on the basis of a hard-luck story is fair, but man, it just doesn’t seem right to prosecute a woman who was so desperate to abort that she paid someone to beat her up.
maeby commented on Oct 15 09 at 1:21 pmthats fucking disgusting. she shouldn’t get that baby. she wanted that baby DEAD. what makes you think shes not going to kill it once she gets her dumbass hands on it?
Ri-chan commented on Oct 15 09 at 6:03 pmOf course she shouldn’t get the baby! She tried to kill it! And the law isn’t disgusting, late term abortions are, these are babies that can survive outside the womb, she could have waited two more months to go get knocked up again.
coolteamblt commented on Oct 15 09 at 6:52 pmI’m pro-choice, but this disgusts me. Her reason for getting an abortion is the most selfish one in the book. To me, she’d already made her choice when she waited until she was seven months along to solicite one. I also don’t agree with late-term abortions without a very strict set of restrictions (severe defect, risk to the mom’s health, etc.).
coolteamblt commented on Oct 15 09 at 6:53 pmAnd I forgot to say, she should have absolutely been prosecuted for her role. And never ever get to see that baby. Ever.
MMCMomma commented on Oct 22 09 at 3:20 pmI’m going to have to disagree with the comments that she shouldn’t be allowed custody of the child. Yes, her reasons were selfish and borderline insane. Yes, what she attempted to do was a frightening act of self-harm. Does that mean that she can’t have come to her senses? No. Does that mean that she’s incapable of having grown up, sought counseling, and found that she made a grave mistake that she wants to repent for? Absolutely not. I firmly believe that the entire situation should be evaluated by a team of professionals, and that judgement should be left to those who have a chance to witness her remorse, as opposed to those of us on the media’s side of it riding our moral high horses.
luz commented on Jan 27 10 at 9:20 pmI also have to disagree and am shocked by the disregard for this woman’s rights shown by the above comments. So because a woman considers abortion she is unfit to be a mother? That idea is one of the most misogynistic thing I’ve read here. Not what I would consider pro-choice. She needs therapy and help, but just because she sought an abortion does not mean she does not love her own child. If she has ever been violent to the child since his or her birth, that’s a completely different situation but is not the case here. Parental rights cannot and should not be able to be terminated at whim or for political reasons.
Doggie commented on Jan 29 10 at 10:55 pmIf I were pregnant with a female I would abort. Why make more women? This is what life they have to look forward to? I couldn’t look at my daughter and tell her that this is what life will be. We hate women so much in this world. Why don’t we do something real about it. Stop bringing women into the world. Learn to clone humans, make robots for sex… and then there will be a world of human beings only. Women are not people they are baby machines. To be a woman is worse than to be a dog. I curse my mother for not having the good sense to recognize that and abort when she could have.
