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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Racial Justice / This Week In Blackness / When The Law Gives A Fetus A Lawyer

When The Law Gives A Fetus A Lawyer

by Elon James White|  October 8, 20142:48 pm| 14 Comments

This post is in: This Week In Blackness

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In the department of extreme new laws, Alabama takes the cake. The new law forces minors who want to abort a pregnancy without the consent of their parents to undergo a court trial to get permission. Included in the trial are time-consuming inquistions, witnesses to testify against the pregnant teen, and possible disclosure of the minor’s identity on a “need to know” basis. The unborn fetus can even be appointed a lawyer. Sadly, that last part isn’t even new:

But the practice of appointing attorneys to represent fetuses in judicial bypass hearings is not. An Alabama judge tried to appoint representation for a fetus in the state’s very first bypass hearing in 1987. A 1988 Ms. cover story on that case reported that the judge, Charles Nice, reassigned an attorney who wanted to represent the minor to represent the minor’s fetus instead. The attorney refused to cooperate, and Judge Nice dropped the idea.

As if abortions aren’t traumatic enough.

Team Blackness also discussed a four year old passing out heroin to her classmates thinking it was candy (we smell a parent of the year award!), Drone Gunboats, and more ugliness going down in Ferguson.


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14Comments

  1. 1.

    Violet

    October 8, 2014 at 4:06 pm

    The unborn fetus can even be appointed a lawyer.

    I hope this opens up new avenues to challenge the personhood issue. Can the fetus do things that require a birthdate on the application? Why not? Are they not a person? As someone suggested in a previous thread, can a fetus get a gun permit?

  2. 2.

    Ripley

    October 8, 2014 at 4:43 pm

    It’s all fun and games until the fetus sues its lawyer for malpractice.

  3. 3.

    sparrow

    October 8, 2014 at 4:50 pm

    An abortion is not necessarily traumatic. In fact, most of the time it isn’t. I’m extremely sorry for those few that have to abort a wanted pregnancy, but for most of us, it was a simple decision that we have no problem whatsoever living with. I would rather not have had to do it (mainly for the money, I was poor at the time), but I’d do it 1000 times again if necessary.

  4. 4.

    ? Martin

    October 8, 2014 at 4:52 pm

    I want to be a judge so I can appoint an attorney on behalf of every Republican’s lost soul.

  5. 5.

    Howard Beale IV

    October 8, 2014 at 4:53 pm

    Not surprising-in asset forfeiture cases, the courts file suits against all sorts of inanimate objects all the time (i.e, United States vs. $23,000 in cash)

  6. 6.

    burnspbesq

    October 8, 2014 at 5:13 pm

    Roll Tide.

    Sigh.

  7. 7.

    Elly

    October 8, 2014 at 5:19 pm

    As if abortions aren’t traumatic enough.

    Actually, the majority of abortions (done in the first trimester) aren’t traumatic – or, at least they wouldn’t be, in the absence of an organized mob of self-righteous, god-bothering zealots determined to shame, lie to and obstruct women during every step of the process.

    I had a legal abortion in late 1979, when I was approx. 8 weeks pregnant. It was about as traumatic as having a cavity filled at the dentist. I understand the desire to counter “forced birth” portrayals of women who get abortions as selfish sluts who don’t want to trade their “skinny jeans” for maternity clothes, with an image of serious women struggling with the deep moral implications… but this does not describe my experience; nor that of my friends/acquaintances who also had abortions. In my own case, my path was quite clear: I did not want to be a mother at 22, full stop. My body; my life – so there wasn’t much for me to stress over.

    This is not to say that abortions aren’t traumatic enough for minors who want to abort without parental permission, as this suggests that they face shaming, punishment and perhaps even forced birth from their parents/guardians. It’s disgusting that the legal system would seek to create an even more frightening and potentially coercive environment than the one the minor child is attempting to avoid.

  8. 8.

    Mnemosyne

    October 8, 2014 at 6:02 pm

    @Elly:

    Slight disagreement — I would say that it’s generally more traumatic for a minor to get an abortion than it is for an adult (even a young adult). It’s not necessarily the procedure itself, but even in a best-case scenario, you have to tell your parents, have them make the appointment for you, deal with adults clucking their tongues at you, etc. There have been cases where girls ended up dying of illegal abortions just because they didn’t want to deal with having to tell their parents so they could get a legal (and safe) one. I think that’s different than the shaming adults have to put up with because legally minors are still under the control of their parents or guardians and in some states can’t move forward with an abortion without their parents’ /guardians’ approval or a court’s approval.

    Add in the fact that younger minors are more likely to have gotten pregnant thanks to statutory rape or forcible rape and there probably is some trauma involved for underage girls who have to decide whether or not to get an abortion.

  9. 9.

    kc

    October 8, 2014 at 6:07 pm

    @Ripley:

    t’s all fun and games until the fetus sues its lawyer for malpractice.

    The fetus would need a second lawyer, of course, to sue the first one. There’d be no end to the fun!

  10. 10.

    Elly

    October 8, 2014 at 6:51 pm

    @Mnemosyne: For the record, I was responding to the blanket statement “as if abortions aren’t traumatic enough” – not, “as if abortions for minors aren’t traumatic enough.

    TBH, I’m not sure that your clarification here…

    There have been cases where girls ended up dying of illegal abortions just because they didn’t want to deal with having to tell their parents so they could get a legal (and safe) one.

    …is really substantially different from my own statement that…

    This is not to say that abortions aren’t traumatic enough for minors who want to abort without parental permission, as this suggests that they face shaming, punishment and perhaps even forced birth from their parents/guardians.

    I submit that a girl who doesn’t “want to deal with having to tell [her] parents” is very likely one who – at best – has parents who’ve seriously dropped the ball w/respect to keeping the lines of communication open. I have a (now adult) daughter myself – and made it clear to her on multiple occasions that she could come to me with any personal issue, because trying to hide problems invariably makes them worse. I freely discussed my own experiences with dating, premarital sex, birth control and abortion with her (just as my mother – who had two discreet medical abortions herself – did with me), so she knew in advance of any hypothetical need that she would not be shamed or even “clucked” at.

  11. 11.

    MomSense

    October 8, 2014 at 7:03 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    I once had the opportunity to read the entries in journals that are available for women to write about their abortions. It was at a planned parenthood not far from where I live. There were entries that just tore out your heart, women grieving even as they knew they were doing the right thing.

  12. 12.

    tokyo expat

    October 8, 2014 at 7:28 pm

    Abortion is a personal decision, as it should be. I can only imagine how traumatic it might be for a teen, especially for one who does not have support behind her and must face the inquisition of a bunch of adults.

    That said, the decision to abort wasn’t traumatic for me. What was traumatic was learning in my first pregnancy that my baby didn’t have a brain (anencephaly). That was at about 18 weeks and I had just felt my baby move. I was in Japan. I didn’t have much time to make a decision, but I knew termination was the right decision for me and my husband. The termination took place in an Episcopalian hospital and I was treated with dignity and caring throughout the process. The doctor told us to wait six months and six months later I was pregnant with my first son who was born in a wonderful hospital in London.

    Japan and England are much more rational when it comes to this topic.

  13. 13.

    WereBear

    October 8, 2014 at 7:34 pm

    @Elly: It’s disgusting that the legal system would seek to create an even more frightening and potentially coercive environment than the one the minor child is attempting to avoid.

    Both disgusting AND the point!

  14. 14.

    mclaren

    October 8, 2014 at 8:58 pm

    Nahhh, the solution is to give all foetuses guns. That way, they can protect themselves.

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