An appeals court in Florida has upheld a ruling that a 16yo girl is not sufficiently mature enough to get an abortion
\n MIAMI
\nAn appeals court in Florida has upheld a ruling that a 16-year-old girl is not \u201csufficiently mature\u201d enough to get an abortion — a decision that sparked the ire of some US lawmakers.
\nTwo months after the Supreme Court overturned nationwide access to the termination of a pregnancy, the teenager\u2019s case is fuelling new anger over women\u2019s rights in the United States.
\nThe girl, who is not identified, told a lower court she was \u201cnot ready to have a baby,\u201d that she was still in school and had no job, and that the father of the child could not help her.
\nMinors seeking an abortion in Florida need the consent of at least one of their parents. But the girl is \u201cparentless,\u201d lives with a relative and has a state-appointed guardian, court documents showed.
\nShe was seeking a waiver of that rule — but the lower court said she had \u201cnot established by clear and convincing evidence that she was sufficiently mature to decide whether to terminate her pregnancy.\u201d
\nOn Monday, a state appeals court upheld that decision, igniting anger among US lawmakers.
\n\u201cIf you\u2019re infuriated because a court is forcing a teenager to carry a pregnancy to term after ruling she was not \u2018mature\u2019 enough to have an abortion, you\u2019re not alone. It is abhorrent,\u201d tweeted Democratic congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, who has spoken openly about her own abortion.
\nLois Frankel, a Democratic lawmaker from Florida, called the decision \u201cunacceptable,\u201d adding: \u201cThis is a dangerous & horrific example of Florida\u2019s war on women.\u201d
\n\u201cIn what world is a 16 year old too immature to receive an abortion but mature enough to commit to carrying and raising a child?\u201d asked Ohio Democrat Joyce Beatty, also on Twitter. \u201cNot mature enough for an abortion, but mature enough to have a baby. This is sick,\u201d agreed Pennsylvania lawmaker Malcolm Kenyatta.
\nThe teenager had told the court that her guardian had given their consent for the abortion, but that consent did not appear to have been made in writing, court documents showed.
\nThe girl was 10 weeks pregnant, according to the documents.
\nAfter the Supreme Court reversed the nationwide right to abortion in June, handing the decision back to the states, Florida changed its laws to ban the procedure after 15 weeks, when the previous cut-off was 24 weeks.
\nOther Republican-led states in the American South — including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia — have almost completely banned the practice or reduced the window to six weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An appeals court in Florida has upheld a ruling that a 16yo girl is not sufficiently mature enough to get an abortion MIAMI An appeals court in Florida has upheld a ruling that a 16-year-old girl is not \u201csufficiently mature\u201d enough to get an abortion — a decision that sparked the ire of some US […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-278138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n