A Florida appeals court has upheld a ruling that said a 16-year-old girl was not “mature enough” to have an abortion – a decision that sparked the ire of some US lawmakers.
Two months after the Supreme Court overturned the nation’s right to abortion, the teenage girl’s case is fueling renewed anger at women’s rights across the United States.
The girl, who cannot be identified, told a lower court she was “not ready to have a baby,” she was still in school and unemployed, and the child’s father was unable to help her.
Minors seeking an abortion in Florida must have the consent of at least one parent. But the girl is “parentless”, lives with a relative and has a state-appointed guardian, court documents showed.
She sought to have that rule overturned – but the lower court said she had “failed to establish by clear and compelling evidence that she was mature enough to decide whether to terminate her pregnancy”.
On Monday, a state appeals court upheld that decision, sparking fury among US lawmakers.
“If you’re angry that a court is forcing a teenage girl to carry a pregnancy to term after deciding she’s not ‘mature’ enough to have an abortion, you’re not alone. It’s disgusting,” Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal tweeted. who has spoken openly about her own abortion.
Lois Frankel, a Florida Democratic lawmaker, called the decision “unacceptable,” adding, “This is a dangerous and horrifying example of Florida’s war on women.”
“In what world is a 16-year-old too immature for an abortion but mature enough to commit to bearing and raising a child?” asked Joyce Beatty, a Democrat from Ohio, also on Twitter.
“Not mature enough to have an abortion, but mature enough to have a baby. This is sick,” agreed Pennsylvania Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta.
The teenager had told the court that her guardian had consented to the abortion, but that consent did not appear to have been given in writing, court documents showed.
According to the documents, the girl was 10 weeks pregnant.
After the Supreme Court overturned statewide abortion rights and returned the decision to states in June, Florida changed its laws to ban the procedure after 15 weeks, while the previous deadline was 24 weeks.
Other Republican-led states in the American South — including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia — have almost entirely banned the practice or shortened the window to six weeks.
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