Foster teen who fought for abortion pregnant again

[deadparrot]

The foster child who made national news last year when the state of Florida went to court to prevent her from having an abortion is pregnant again.

"L.G.," who turned 15 this month, is due to deliver a baby boy Nov. 1, her mother said.

The teenager first got pregnant at 13 after running away from a state group home. Attorneys with the Florida Department of Children and Families petitioned a juvenile court judge to stop her from terminating her pregnancy, saying the state could not consent to an abortion.

But the foster teen's attorneys successfully argued that the decision was L.G.'s to make. She ended her pregnancy May 3, 2005.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/local_news/epaper/2006/06/16/c1b_lg_0616.html

[Name removed]

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[prolesunited]

4. Or the boy who got her pregnant

a little instruction on keeping his penis in his pants or at least wrapping it up.

Oh, but I forgot, girls are the only ones responsible for pregnancy. :eyes:

[daleo]

10. The story said it was an 18 year old male

DNA could determine that for sure (99.9% anyway). If he is the father, the courts could hold him responsible.

[Odin2005]

27. Hey, BOTH had to agree to have sex.

Blaming it entirely on the guy is just as sexist as blaming it on the girl.

[Exultant Democracy]

34. Who has to live wit the consequences?

It is in fact the girl who keeps getting pregnant so a responsible person would try to help her first so that she stops hurting herself.

[Name removed]

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[silvertip]

70. Pregnant!

     I'm sorry if I gave the impression that the girl was the
only one that was responsible, she was not by any means  the
only one to be responsible.My original response to this post
was deleted as was another response by another person, anyway
I was only trying to point out that this young lady should
have learned from her past experiances, and that she should
have been given some sort of instruction about contracecption
since she had already proven to be sexually active.Perhaps I
was remiss in not stating that the male should be given tha
same instruction.

[elehhhhna]

23. ...as they do in Europe. Contraception education & availability would

prevent so much heartache.

[humbled_opinion]

26. Watch out

Next you will have all the Conservative Yahoos up in arms about prior abortion going to cause her to abuse the child she decides to keep... Bet a quarter on it...

[silvertip]

69. Watch out!

   Well my original statemrnt was deleted as this one may well
be but I will stand by what I had to say. Another statment was
also deleted but I wasn't able to see it before it was made to
dissappear so I don't have the foggist as to what the person
had to say. But whatever! I guess I'll just have to live with
their decision.

[aikoaiko]

2. Something in this case for everyone's personal soapbox. nt

[daleo]

3. Here's are the key bits

"At 13, she told Palm Beach County Juvenile Court Judge Ronald Alvarez that she wanted an abortion because she didn't want the baby to grow up in foster care."
...
"This time, her mother said, L.G. wants to keep her baby."

Choice, choice.

[LisaL]

5. And I suppose at 15 she can raise the baby, and the baby

won't end up in foster care?
Yea, right.

[daleo]

6. I am not saying it was a good thing she got pregnant

I am saying it is a good thing she has choice, now that she is pregnant.

[LisaL]

7. Nobody should be able to force her to have an abortion, but

methinks they should have talked with her about birth control after the first one.

[daleo]

9. The girl's mother said she didn't think the pregnancy was an accident

For what that is worth.

I can't imagine that the girl didn't get some education on birth control, but I certainly can't say for sure. Unfortunately some young women will become pregnant in their teens, no matter what society does. In these cases it is best they have choices, other than the Madelaine Laundries, and such like.

[lindisfarne]

16. I agree. If she was on the pill, that requires remembering to take it

daily, at the SAME time. Which can be a problem, as anyone who has ever dealt with a teenager can imagine.

I'm wondering how and why this ended up in the media? If I got pregnant, the media wouldn't cover it. (and the media doesn't cover most teenage pregnancies).

[LisaL]

18. Because there was a fight whether or not she should be allowed

to have an abortion at 13. And now she is preggo again, only this time she decided to keep it.

[lindisfarne]

20. Yeah, but health status is supposed to be confidential. Her mother

isn't her guardian (at least, not according to the article - her mother isn't allowed to contact her) so her mother didn't have the authority to talk to the press about her health or to grant them a waiver regarding the girl's right to confidentiality. So how does the press get away with publishing this?

[okieinpain]

31. oh I was going to post a sarcasm, but forget it.

[kestrel91316]

19. Hell, they should have told her "Listen up, dearie. You WILL have this

Norplant put in". Or Depoprovera shot. Or whatever. Maybe the doctors there are just simpletons or negligent or whatever and didn't BOTHER to offer her birth control.

[Name removed]

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[kestrel91316]

42. I know a fair number of physicians who seem pretty moronic.

It's ENTIRELY possible that the "little chat" with this girl got overlooked or forgotten.

I could tell you tales about the incredibly STUPID things I have seen physicians do to their pets. Like putting amoxicillin suspension in the eye rather than the mouth. Or ignoring repeated veterinary advice to fix a perineal hernia until the dog's bladder herniated and necrosed and the dog died.

I do not worship at the altar of the almighty, perfect doctor.

[Name removed]

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[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

60. Easy answer

"What kind of moron would not speak to this girl about birth control after what happened last time?"

Those who push "abstinence-only" sex education.

[Name removed]

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[XemaSab]

63. In case you didn't notice

that's the whole point of the website.

:hi:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

64. And that's a bad thing... how? -nt

[arwalden]

65. It's Not A Bad Thing... Except...

... except for the one who happens to be the target of said bashing.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

66. SO fleeting. I can't even remember what its name was. -nt

[arwalden]

67. Here You Go...

Enjoy your trip down memory lane. It leads directly to the freeper cemetary...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=user_profiles&u_id=190777

[noonwitch]

71. I'm sure they did explain it to her

Teenagers in the foster care system are emotionally needy, especially the girls. A lot of them have been abused, and even those who haven't were raised by people who didn't necessarily explain the facts of life to them, or set a very poor example as far as sex goes.

Still, it was the 15 year old girl's and her boyfriend's responsibility that she is pregnant. She will get assistance in raising her baby-they have foster home programs for teen moms, where they live together with a trained foster parent(s). If not that, there are programs through places like Florence Crittendon services, and when she's closer to 17, she can get an apartment with her baby, if she is ready for some supervised independence at that point.

If she screws up taking care of her kid, the state will file to have her rights terminated and the kid will be placed for adoption, usually by the foster parent who took them both in. But before that happens, whatever agency is working with her will try to help her become a good parent, despite her age. It is not impossible for her to do that, but she will need help.

[badgerpup]

8. Physiologically, she is too young to be having babies.

Obviously, she can get pregnant.
What about her body being able to sustain the pregnancy and deliver a healthy baby at the end of it?
This is going to affect the health of both her and her child.
I wonder if she will even be able to carry to term...

[daleo]

11. Fifteen's not ideal, but humans have been having babies for a long time

at that age. I knew a girl or two who had children that young. The costs are usually social rather than medical (interference with schooling, financial problems, etc.).

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. Nonsense

15 was prime baby-birthing age up until about 150 years ago. Don't be ridiculous.

[Captain Hilts]

15. And dying in childbirth was a lot more common too. nt

[alcibiades_mystery]

30. I'd be happy to look at any study you can provide

That demonstrates the higher rate of death in childbirth had to do primarily with younger deliveries. I'd expect older deliviries, extraordinary deliveries (breach, etc.), lack of sanitary conditions and medical intervention, etc., had as much to do with the higher death rates as teenage deliveries.

[Nikia]

33. Links

http://www.savethechildren.org/news/releases/release_sowm04_a.asp
http://www.populationmedia.org/issues/women.html#teen%20mothers
http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content/news/teen_pregnancy.html
http://www.fhi.org/en/RH/Pubs/Briefs/factsheet11.htm
http://www.healthypeople.gov/Document/HTML/Volume2/16MICH.htm#_Toc494699661

Here are a few links. I have to admit that I am not the best internet researcher. It is true that the death rates amongst teens giving birth are relatively low in the U.S. because most give birth in a proper medical setting that can help with complications that may occurr. That does not mean that having babies as soon as one can physically is a good health decision especially if good medical care is not available (developing world, most of the world more than a few generations ago). It is also true that older women (over 40) may be at higher risk than younger pregnancies, but such women are usually more medically informed and can make a better decision about the risk that they are taking.

[Exultant Democracy]

36. Every see what happens to a Filly's body when it gets

pregnant too young? In many large and complicated mammals the age of sexual maturity and the age when the body is ready to put up with the rigors and hardships of pregnancy and giving birth are tow different things.

[alcibiades_mystery]

40. That's nice

I'll wait for some actual evidence, though.

[Name removed]

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[struggle4progress]

55. Not really "prime" -- premature births are more common, which ..

.. raises infant mortality rates ...

[Arkansas Granny]

14. Although the optimum age for pregnancy is currently considered

to be 20 - 34, this is not so much due to health reasons as societal reasons. Some doctors seem to think that 16 is the optimum age for a first pregnancy.

[lindisfarne]

21. The teenage body bounces back from the insults of pregnancy much

better than that of an older woman. Evolution designed women to have children once they started ovulating ... that means by 15 or so (it is true that with today's obesity problem (fat causes estrogen levels to rise), girls have started getting their periods much earlier, but if you look back 100 years or so, most women got their periods by 15 or so.)

[Arkansas Granny]

24. Yes, nature meant for women to use those eggs while they are

fresh. With the shorter life expectancies of just a few generations ago a woman wouldn't live long enough to raise her children unless she started having them shortly after she started having periods. Society places more restrictions on childbearing practices than nature does.

[Nikia]

29. Then why aren't women fully grown in hips at that age

Childbirth was one of the leading casues of death for women. It is true that some young women were married off at puberty or younger but others didn't marry until their later teens or twenties even in Colonial America. Young age at childbirth is a risk factor for both maternal and infant death, especially before modern medicine. Older age was a risk factor too. Neither stopped women at either end of the spectrum from having babies their entire reproductive life. Some women did have many babies from ages 15-45, but it doesn't mean that it was healthy.

[pitohui]

51. i was fully grown in the hips at 14 and i think most women are

there are unusual women who don't develop until 16 or 17 but they stand out as twiggy precisely because they are unusual

[Nikia]

53. I know that I have seen it in biology/health textbooks

In trying to search the web, I had a hard time finding a webpage specifically about pelvic growth in teenage girls. I did find this http://www.unsystem.org/scn/archives/npp19/ch08.htm. The pertinent part on that webpage is about adolescent growth. Pelvic growth continues later than height growth.
As a former high school runner, there were a number of girls on my team who substained hip injuries. They were told that it was their growth in this area which made them more suseptible.
I beleived that I was fully grown by my early teens. I became frustrated that I somehow couldn't become that small even though I was lighter than I ever was in my teens. My doctor and my dietican said that it was because my skeleton (shoulder and hip bones) became larger even though my growth stopped. They may have been lying to me just so I would quit losing weight, but I don't think so.

[HockeyMom]

41. I was 10 when I got it

No, I wasn't obese. 5'1" and 100 lbs. Both my Mom and my daughter were 11. It tends to run in families and certain ethnicities.

[Nikia]

45. I got my period at 11. Grandmother got hers at 10.

Most of my other female relatives got their period at 11 or 12. Most weren't obese. My sister was even underweight. I don't think these ages are unusuaul historically amongst sedentary (non nomadic) peoples who aren't battling famine. Different cultures have different appropriate marriage ages. For some cultures, around puberty is considered ideal. For other cultures, late teens or twenties is/was considered ideal.

[progressivebydesign]

56. From someone who had a baby at barely 16, I tell ya it's a mistake!!

Your body NEVER recovers from it.. and you will spend the rest of your teen years and young adulthood feeling completely out of place and different. I dropped out of schoole because I couldn't bear to change my clothes in the PE locker room around the other girls, because it was soo obvious I had given birth. You never feel the same.. ever. And.. let's discuss how ready that child would be to raise another human being.. on public assistance.. with no high school education.

Some may say that young bodies recover from it faster than older bodies.. but you speak nothing of the psychological effects of going through a birth while you're still a child. The birth experience, from a young girl's perspective, is NOT beautiful.. it's frightening.

This girl should have been monitored better after her recent experience. The parents involved should be held accountable for not making sure she didn't get pregnant again. This is a lose-lose situation for everyone.

[Nikia]

28. I thought that it was due to health reasons as well

Infant and maternal mortality, especially when there isn't access to good medical care. The pelvic bones will usually continue to expand into ones twenties. Teenagers usually aren't usually fully grown in that area, making them at higher risk of complications than if they waited.
It is true that every woman is different. Some modern women would die in childbirth without a caesarean in their late twenties because of their pelvic bones where some 12 years old would be alright. Physically though that area widens throughout ones teens, sometimes longer, so a woman in her twenties has safer childbirth than a girl in her teens.
American women with access to adequate health care usually can safely endure childbirth though no matter what their age, with some increased risks at both ends of the age spectrum (early teens, fourties).

[Maddy McCall]

22. We have the highest teen pregnancy rate in Mississippi...

I can guarantee you, 15 year olds are physiologically able to have babies.

We've had 12 year olds have babies here.

[Captain Hilts]

32. A 13 year old in 1850 is physically not like a 13 year old in 2000. nt

[silvertip]

47. 1850-2000?

    Explain please- maybe I'm a little slow but I don't
understand your comment.

[Captain Hilts]

48. A 13 year old today is much more physically developed than 100 yrs ago. nt

[pitohui]

50. er, she is now 15, her physiology ain't the issue here

unless there is another health issue i don't know abt -- always possible -- she can bring a baby to term just fine

15 is a better age for having babies than 45, if physiology was our society's genuine concern, rather than fear and jealousy of the teen having sex

13 can be a little borderline but she chose the abortion at 13, so that is no longer at issue

me at that age, having a baby was something to be feared, but my fears were to some degree hysterical rather than fact-based and in any case, it's her body, should be her choice, in my view

[Ilsa]

59. At her age, the baby is more likely to be a preemie or end up in

the NICU for something related to underdevelopment or illness.

[bleedingheart]

62. what makes her think that this one won't end up in foster care?

personally I think the best birth control would be to have a teenage girl and boy watch screaming toddlers for 12 hours a day for two weeks (under supervision)...shitty diapers, screaming and little people who need need need...and want want want...then having a baby wouldn't be so glamorous.

[Erika]

13. How very sad for all.

Our country needs to help in education and nurturing of these kids, but the GOP cut off funds. Just abstain was there pathetic response to a real problem.

[Gman]

17. Abstinence is so effective

What a wonderful idea the fundies came up with.

[The Straight Story]

58. What, abstinence got her pregrnant? ;) (nt)

[Acadia Blue]

25. Wake up and use birthcontrol. The pill, foam, ect just use it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

35. And just think if she had only taken an abstinency pledge

she would still be in foster care and probably reading her bible instead of having sex.

:sarcasm:

[JI7]

38. why didn't these wingnuts adopt her

and take her into their home and raise her ?

because they are phonies. they preach this crap, but they are not willing to give their time, money, love to these kids and raise them with these "perfect" values.

instead they will rant about lazy welfare mothers and how liberals are destroying morals and values.

[bettyellen]

37. they may lock up the kid, since she ran away.

"In May, L.G. turned herself in. She is now in the custody of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice and could be sent to a locked program for young offenders."

[Quantess]

49. Too late now, but

she probably should have gotten another abortion. She doesn't sound like she's ready to be a mom.

[BrownOak]

52. This is not about birth control

it's about a situation where a 15-year-old thinks having a baby is a good idea. And she's distressingly not alone in that regard as there are plenty of teens out there who willingly have babies. It's just a guess, but I'm betting that most teen mothers are unwed and many end up with little or no support from the father. That's not to say that you need two parents or financial support from the father to successfully raise a child, but it makes the job a lot more difficult if you don't. The odds of someone being self-sufficient and a good mother at that young of an age are pretty long.

[Thickasabrick]

54. There is no telling why this happened. Since she has such

a fucked up family, maybe she thought she could "create" a family. Maybe she felt guilty about the first one. Whatever her reasons, this is really sad. Society as a whole really screwed this little girl. I can only hope her child doesn't suffer the same fate.

[progressivebydesign]

57. Dontcha know? ALL the celebs are popping out babies at top speed!!

And they are the role models for the majority of young girls. Sadly.. what these girls don't realize is that Brittney has millions of dollars, nannies, mannies, and housekeeping staff, chefs, personal trainers, drivers, etc. etc. etc. She does not live in her mother's apartment trying to figure out how to make public assistance stretch far enough to buy one of her own CDs. It's a major disservice to teens... to promote that shit.

[raccoon]

68. Right on! I totally agree.

For many--probaby most young unmarried women who have children, it means their life is going to be a struggle for years to come.