An 11-year-old girl in the United Kingdom will undergo a court-ordered abortion, even though she wants to keep her baby.
The Telegraph reported that the girl became pregnant after being raped several times by older boys. London High Court judge Emma Arbuthnot ruled that she should have an abortion, saying it was in her “best interest,” even though it was a health board, and not the girl herself, who requested the abortion.
“She became pregnant after being raped by a 14-year-old she met on the internet when she was aged 10, on the 18th or 21st of May 2023,” Arbuthnot said. “She was raped by another 14-year-old boy on the 11th of June 2023, but he did not make her pregnant.”
Arbuthnot explained that a health board asked for “declarations that a termination of pregnancy would be in her best interests,” and that the placenta should be retained for forensic testing.
However, according to both The Sun and Fox News, the girl (identified only as AZ) and her mother did not request an abortion.
“When the many risks of continuing with the pregnancy were explained to her, AZ said she was ‘happy’ to be pregnant and wanted to continue with it,” Arbuthnot’s ruling said. “She said it made her feel ‘special’. The mother supported AZ’s position.”
Yet a mental health expert said she lacked competence, — something Arbuthnot evidently agreed with.
“Her views involved ‘naive magical thinking’ in her approach to the pregnancy,” she said. “She lacked the intellectual development and capacity to process the complexity of the decisions that had to be made and her emotional investment in one outcome was clearly clouding her judgement. An important factor in AZ’s decision-making was that the birth of a child would ensure she would not have to return to school.”
Though it is undoubtedly clear that an 11-year-old does not have the ability to make such serious decisions, AZ’s mother was willing to support her daughter in her decision. Furthermore, if a child does not have the maturity to decide to keep a child, they don’t have the maturity to decide to kill one, either.
Arbuthnot did not seem to weigh in on the emotional distress it might cause AZ to be forced into an abortion she does not want, when AZ is aware of her pregnancy and wants to have her baby. Even more disturbingly, the court wants to force AZ into birth control as well, but complained that there has not yet been a request for a long-term birth control implant to be placed.
“The mother made the telling point to the social worker that there was a risk that if AZ’s pregnancy was terminated, she would just go out and become pregnant again,” Arbuthnot said. “For some reason the parents do not appear to be able to prevent this. The risks of another pregnancy are obvious but there is no application for a declaration that an implant should be inserted against AZ’s will. Instead, it is hoped that AZ may well agree to this.”
Apparently, talk of bodily autonomy does not apply when a court chooses to end the life of an innocent child over his or her mother’s will, subjecting the mother — a survivor of rape — to yet another violation of her own body.
