Perhaps its my own religious ambiguity, but I think especially in this scenario, what the Roman Catholic Church believes is of less importance than the health and safety of the mother, who would be a mother by no fault of her own and is indisputably far too young! Whatever comes of this (whether she has the child or not) this girl does not deserve to be under fire for it no matter what. The person who should be feeling more of the heat in this situation is her sick stepfather.
Monday, April 19, 2010
10-year-old's pregnancy fuels Mexican abortion debate
A 1o year old in Mexico is 17 and a half weeks pregnant, a product of being raped by her own stepfather. While abortions are legal in Mexico City, the state in which the girl lives only allows abortions in cases of rape in the first 90 days following the incident, which means it is too late for her to have this baby aborted. However, advocacy groups are even calling the UN to help navigate the issue, arguing that the girl was not aware of her abortion rights. As of now, the victim and the fetus are fine, but at such a young age it has been deemed a "high risk pregnancy". As a largely Catholic country, 17 states of Mexico have passed laws "protecting life beginning at conception".
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7 comments:
Pregnancy at such a young age is definitely "high risk" considering how undeveloped (i assume) the girl's body to be. At that age, one usually just does not have the bone structure to give birth, so the girl could very well end up seriously injured post labor. Because of this, I firmly believe that this should be looked at on a case-specific basis so that the girl can get an abortion. Besides the potential harm caused by giving birth, who in the world is ready to be a mother to anything but a cabbage patch doll a the age of ten?!?
regardless of whether she is allowed to get the abortion or not, her disgusting pedophiliac step father surely deserves some SEVERE punishment.
This is such a sad situation. I don't want to push my own views on abortion on anyone, but i think that the safety of the girl is much more important than the belief that abortion is against the ccatholic religion. This is something that a 10 year old never needs to go through. It makes me sick that a girls stepfather can rape her, and not even make it known that she can abort the baby. being that she is only 10 years old, i think that it is safe to say that she never really realized her or was made aware of her rights as a rape victim. This young girl and her family needs to be able to realize the severity of this situation, and need to make to best decision for her. I just can not believe that people are willing to place so much blame on this young girl, obviously being raped and impregnated by her stepfather was not her choice, and at the moment all that should matter is her health and the health of her baby. But whatever this girl chooses to do, we must respect it.
-Jane Hayashi-
This is so sad! A ten year-old pregnant because she was raped by her stepfather? I hear a lot about teen pregnancies all the time, but definietly not much about girls being pregnant at age ten. She's only ten, how is she going to be able to support both herself and the baby? She probably isn't even physically ready, nor is she emotionally ready. Poor girl, she was probably really helpless and confused about everything that might have been going on at the time. She wasn't even told about abortion; I find that rather harsh. The stepfather probably knew about it all along,but didn't want to do anything about the situation. Since he is the stepfather, he probably doesn't even care much for her, neither does he feel remorse for what he has done. I feel really sorry for the girl. It isn't even her choice to be raped and she deserves more compassion than this. I feel very disgusted with the stepfather. Something has to be done here.
Raped by her own stepfather? That disgusts me. I would definitely agree that this is a "high risk pregnancy", given that the mother isn't developed at all. I mean, I've heard of the earliest mother being aged eight, but I still think this is an extreme case. An extreme case calls for extreme measures. Although the law only permits abortions within the first 90 days, I feel that this is a rare and special case that deserves special attention. It's not like this is a celebrity trying to get out of punishment only fit for everyday people (which disgusts me). Instead, this is a girl that has been humiliated and burdened. I feel that regardless of the law, this girl should have the moral right to decide whether or not to bring this child into the world, especially if she can't care for him like as much as someone else could.
woww that is a sick and horrible thing to hear!
The stepfather seriously should be convicted of some sort of crime due to the fact that it was rape, the girl is super young and it was her own step father. But I do not know the legal procedure in Mexico, and was also wondering how and who develops the laws on abortion rights in Mexico.
i was wondering if it is similar to our courts in that we have judges that make decisions that allow states to vote for these type of things. I believe that this method in the cases as controversial as abortion should be dealt with in that manner even if it is against their religion, when dealing with cases as cruel as this.
I think that it is extremely sad that we live in a world where this occurs. The fact this girl is pregnant at SUCH a young age is horrifying, and the fact that she is currently unable to get an abortion just makes the whole situation that much worse.
I think that there definitely need to be people advocating for her and her abortion rights, because like Sally said in her blog post, the girl is probably unaware of her abortion rights.
I think that if it turns out she is unable to get an abortion because of however her state rules the case, this needs to be challenged further because in no way is she physically or mentally able to take care of a child at that age.
And I totally agree with Sabrina, the disgustingly sick father deserves sever punishment for doing something so horrific.
I definately think that this event should have caused abortion debates because the girl could be in potential danger because she is so young. This is such a sad event.
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