Queensland Supreme Court lets 12-year-old get abortion despite inability to consent

In August, the Supreme Court of Queensland, Australia, granted an abortion to a 12-year-old girl who is under the supervision of the state after being removed from her home for abuse. She is the third young girl the court has given permission for an abortion since July.

Key Takeaways:

• The Supreme Court of Queensland, Australia, ordered that a 12-year-old girl can undergo an abortion despite her inability to consent.

• The girl has lived in residential care since 2024 and has been removed from the care of her parents. Her mother has drug and mental health issues and her father has been deemed abusive. She has a child protection history record dating back to 2012.

• Doctors claim the girl wanted an abortion but was too young to consent and may not fully understand what an abortion procedure is. This could mean that the abortion would be deemed unlawful, so they sought a court order for the girl to have an abortion.

• The father of the baby is allegedly 16-year-old boy who was not aware of the pregnancy. The age of consent to sex in Queensland is 16, meaning the girl was the victim of assault.

The Details:

A 12-year-old girl in Australia, referred to as "G," underwent a surgical abortion in August after the Supreme Court of Queensland ruled she was not competent enough to provide informed consent under a law known as the Gillick standard, which allows children to make healthcare decisions if they understand the procedure they are undergoing.

The girl has lived in residential care since 2024, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Her mother has mental health and substance abuse issues, and her father is the subject of a domestic violence order.

"She, sadly, has a child protection history record going back to 2012, which is the year of her birth," said Justice Melanie Hindman in her decision. She is a survivor of domestic violence in her home.

If she can't consent to an abortion, just get a court order

Medical staff working with 12-year-old G said she is vaping, smoking cigarettes and cannabis, and drinking alcohol while pregnant. They believe she would cope better with an abortion than she would with a baby, but were concerned that allowing her to consent to the abortion without a court order would be unlawful. Therefore, they brought her case to the court in hopes of getting a court-ordered abortion to essentially protect themselves.

In her opinion, Hindman wrote, "The doctor formed the view that G has appropriate health literacy for someone of her age and has sufficient capacity to consent to her preferred contraceptive, but that she is unable to sufficiently retain information about the termination of pregnancy procedures and particularly the associated risks and therefore does not meet the threshold of capacity for consent to the procedure."

She added, "The opinion appears to be strongly based on a comment by G during the second appointment to the effect that, 'I am listening. But as I hear what you are saying, it disappears.'

"Thus, the concern seemed to be that G did not have a comprehensive retention of understanding of the risks associated with a termination that would allow her to make an informed decision about whether to undergo such a procedure."

G's mother said she was in favor of the abortion, and Hindman said G "has been clear at all times ... that she does not wish to continue with the pregnancy." Hindman found the girl was not Gillick competent for the purpose of consenting to the abortion and "the termination of [her] pregnancy by surgical operation is in [G's] best interests and is necessary having regard to her current and future physical, psychological and social circumstances."

Abortion trauma

The doctors and the court knew that G didn't know what she was getting into by having an abortion — making it all the more tragic that they ordered she undergo one while claiming she was unable to consent.

Licensed clinical therapist Adam Fadel explained, "[T]raumas associated with abortion aren’t ended by the procedure. In fact, many of them begin there. A study conducted by Support After Abortion found that 34% of women suffer 'adverse impacts' like anger, shame[,] and regret from medication abortions. Most of these women said they had nobody to talk to afterwards, and had no idea where to go to understand and address their complicated grief."

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Age of consent

It's important to note that the age of consent is 16 in Queensland, which means the child is a victim of sexual assault. If she is too young to consent to sex by law, it seems rational that she would be unable to consent to an abortion to end the life of her child.

Two other girls, ages 11 and 12, underwent abortions in similar cases in July and August. In those cases, the court determined that the girls — like G — could not lawfully consent to the procedure themselves, but ordered that they undergo one.

The Bottom Line:

Hindman ordered the abortion to be carried out on or before August 7. The court's history of instructing three young girls to have abortions within two months of each other signals a trend in forcing young girls to undergo abortions despite their inability to consent.