Judge nixes Alabama law putting pregnant girls through trial

[yallerdawg]

Source: AP, by Kim Chandler

A federal judge has struck down Alabama's one-of-a-kind law that enabled judges to put minors seeking abortions through a trial-like proceeding in which the fetus could get a lawyer and prosecutors could object to the pregnant girl's wishes.

Alabama legislators in 2014 changed the state's process for girls who can't or won't get their parents' permission for an abortion to obtain permission from a court instead. The new law empowered the judge to appoint a guardian ad litem "for the interests of the unborn child" and invited the local district attorney to call witnesses and question the girl to determine whether she's mature enough to decide.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Russ Walker sided Friday with the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama , writing that the law unconstitutionally and impermissibly imposes "an undue burden on a minor in Alabama who seeks an abortion through a judicial bypass," and violates the girl's confidentiality by potentially bringing other people from her life into the process.

Walker noted in a footnote of the ruling that, under the law, a girl seeking court permission for an abortion in Alabama could face both a lawyer for the fetus and "the chief prosecuting authority of the county in which the minor resides, empowered by the act to represent the state's public policy to protect unborn life, and backed by substantial state resources."

Read it all at: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ABORTION_LAW_ALABAMA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[wcmagumba]

1. Sounds a lot like...

they are trying to re create scenes from the Handmaid's Tale, freaks...

[yallerdawg]

2. Really horrible.

"It is unclear how many such proceedings have happened since the law was enacted. Walker noted that a district attorney this summer opposed the abortion request of a 12-year-old girl who had been raped by an adult relative, and said it was the first case she was aware of that was decided under the new law.

"The girl was 13 weeks pregnant and had just completed fifth grade when she went before a family court judge, according to a court record. The judge approved the abortion on June 27, and the district attorney appealed the same day, arguing that the girl was too immature to make an informed decision. The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals on July 12 ruled in favor of the girl."

[3catwoman3]

3. 5th bleeping grade?

How about castration for the POS that impregnated her?

[procon]

4. No woman -- no human being! -- should be subjected to these patriarchal laws. nt