In a troubling account from Mississippi, a thirteen year old girl became pregnant after
being assaulted by a stranger. She salt an abortion, but faced immense hurdles,
with the nearest provider nine hours away, cost, travel and work issues
rendled it unfeasible. This highlights the aftermath of the U. S. Supreme
Court overturning abortion rights, with fourteen state laws betting abortion now in effect.
These restrictions disapproving disproportionately, rather impact vulnerable communities, worsening existing health disparities.
This case underscores the urgency of discussing women's rights, healthcare access, and the
broader consequences of such policies. This article is from The Guardian entitled thirteen year
old gives birth after she was raped and denied an abortion in Mississippi, written
by Lauren Atani, and it was published on August fourteen, twenty twenty three.
I'm curious to know the thoughts of my panel and infidel. If you
don't mind, I will come to you first. Well, you three people.
They involuntarily became part of a pronal control experiment by the state of Mississippi.
Round of applause from Mississippi. They get to decide when you become a
parent, right, it doesn't matter for self declared pro pro life is a
story ended at the burke Clare victory and go home. Another family now on
the system to complain about because railing against medicaid snap tanneth and where those are
popular in these circles. Already these are things actually improve people's lives. But
and funding needs to be increased, but you know, they don't want to
worry about that. They just want to have their pro life stance. And
but now we have an already struggling now grandmother whose life is ten times more
different and a new mother with a whole new set of challenges in front of
her, a child to raise while she still is a child, you know,
and the ongoing trauma what she's experienced is not something that just happened.
And now the baby is born and moves past it. But the truth is
she'll probably do this with inadequate therapy because it probably doesn't have coverage of any
insurance it's going to be able to give her the treatment she needs anyway.
And of course now we're facing with an infant whose scenario is pretty much set
up failure. Like his mother, he's an increased risk for drug abuse,
incarceration, and mortality. You know, there are people who will dismiss this
and say, you know, well they you know, a tough hand.
But you know there's people that beat the odds and they can just you know,
they can do this, and you do that sometimes. I don't think
they understand what odds mean, pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Nonsense sounds
great to them, but reality is very different. We're just sitting in a
situation with a with a mother who's now a grandmother, a child who's still
a child, and a child is facing a situation where the system's not designed
to help the powerless, it's only the powerful. So where this goes for
her and her family, I mean, it's an unfortunate situation. Worse than
that, I mean, what we have now is an unfortunate situation, but
all completely avoidable. And I just can't understand what people were thinking. And
I wanted to say, Phil, what are your thoughts on this this situation?
Well, when I read this article, it had my mind raising because
again a number of questions arose then that had me really questioning. You know,
like number one the young lady. The child was right in her backyard,
in the parents' backyard, so where were the parents? There was a
dope right then on top of that, ten to eleven weeks she was into
the pregnancy and the parents from dope. Then just because the child, the
child was going through some suffering withdrawal before that, a change in mood,
and the parents didn't even take her to the doctor or to seek some sort
of psychological help that something might be going on. But then you refer to
the article and relaze Oka. It seems as if these are black people,
right, and where they are located is in a very poor area of this
state, so it is like, okay, if they have to pay as
as it was in fidel so they they didn't have the probably didn't have the
medical insurance, right, And sometimes poverty people, sometimes poverty can do certain
things to persons where it is so hard for them that sometimes these things are
overlooked by them because the state they are in, right, And I was
like, but I was still kind of puzzled because oh, it took so
long. Then they decided to take the child to the emergency So that is
something that could have been done earlier. After the child was suffering, Are
you notice certain things happening that should have been done earlier, because if you
could eventually get them to the emergency room, right, they could have been
done earlier, and in one kit in some cases and wondering effort is that
the parents were neglectful. And then on the other hand, it is like
what care property stricken area? Kind of have me between the two wandering which
it is our efforts both. You know, Also it is really really kind
of confusing as to really what was going on, and especially a child in
the back yard. I mean, your parent was the wrong to hear what
was going on? I don't know, Glenn. Sorry, if you does,
what are your thoughts on this? Because this haunds me really buffing well.
I have to say that I think as a parent of a thirteen year
old and knowing how that plays out for her, there are situations where I
don't know what's going on. And unfortunately, I also know that people in
positions of dominance are going to do their thing, and that's going to be
dominate, and a child is going to be, as we talked about at
a point, going to be naturally obedient to that. But rather than get
too deep into that, John, I was kind of wondering what your taking.
Well, you know, thirteen year old child was raped in her backyard,
gave birth to a male child, and now for the rest of her
life, unless she gives it up for adoption, she's going to have to
be reminded of that rape every moment of every day. I want that to
sink into everybody. She was violated and then violated again. This is going
to be a long just like you know, there's stories like this all the
time, children giving birth to children. This is this is personal to me
as well, because when I was a dispatcher, I had a case similar
to this, and it's tragic on so many levels. But you know,
where do people get off, you know, blaming the victim on this?
A nurse asked the girl, what have you been doing after they found out
she was pregnant, automatically blaming the victim. She's thirteen years old. Give
it her, you know, try and give her some support. Imagine the
horror of that poor girl, you know wants you know, they're wanting a
drink of empathy anyone, you know, uh damn. You know. The
whole idea that a state can impose this on a child and then claim they're
protecting children in so many other ways by accusing minority or marginalized people of doing
the very same thing has happened to this girl. I'm just beyond words of
how really, if people can't see that lie right up front, they're being
willfully blind. And that's a legal terminology maybe, but yeah, they're being
willfully blind to a crime that has happened. You know, I feel sorry
for the child that was born. Think about how he's going to grow up
and in the situation he's growing up was hard enough as it was, but
to grow up in a family that sees him as a reminder of a violent
act, to me, that's just beyond any kind of of idea of justice.
And the people in Mississippi who don't see this ought to have it broadcast,
except for the poor girl would get too much popularity, too much publicity,
and I don't think she needs that right now, but they should have
this case, in the case of that ten year old in I think it
was what Kentucky, Ohio, Ohio who had to travel to Illinois to get
Indiana, Indiana to get an Yes, I mean, you know, this
is happening because people have their little easy answer to everything. Everything's black and
white, you know, and there's nothing that's black and white, the black
and white fallacy. Well, it's murdering a child, you know. I
said, well, yeah, either that or it's murdering the mother. You
know, the mother can have more kids. I mean, evolutionarily, this
makes no sense at all. But you know, it's just really doesn't make
sense that you would cause a child to have to go through this. She
has physical damage, I'm sure from giving birth that she's going to have for
the rest of her life. Those reproductive costs we used to say in biology
are immense when they're the child. Is when it's the person who's giving birth
is too young, there's just immense damage to their bones, to their organ
structures, to their all their internal organs who get pushed around in a small
body and crammed into a very small space. That damage later on will cause
complication. Maybe not right away, but as she grows, it's going to
cause complications. I would bet. No. I'm not a doctor and I'm
not a lawyer, but I know that this is going to be a living
nightmare for her for most of her life. All for a silly little propaganda
point so that a political party can main attain itself in power. I'm just
I'm beyond words from anything further than what I've just said these people, I
just can't go there. So Cynthia, yeah, I first one to disant
remind our audience that if you have some time and want to hear some experts
opinions about this articular subject, specifically about the dob's case that we're talking about,
and also abortion and how it affects people who have also been assaulted.
We did a show, believe it was, with a panelful of doctors and
meat that was actually talking about this particular subject and the repercussions that can come
from it. And I knew when the Doves decision came out that stories like
this will be an abundance. As you mentioned, Jonathan, we actually covered
the ten year old girl who was raped by her mother's boyfriend and and who
was able to get to Indiana, but it was only a state over the
nearest place when we are specifically talked about. The nine hour drive was from
where or the woman where the young lady is at in Mississippi all the way
to my city, Chicago, that is the nearest place where one could get
an abortion. And we are no longer in the Great Migration time any longer.
So, you know, people being able just to come up here in
abundance, especially without the funds, can't do it. And we know that
this was specifically the issue with the mother of the thirteen year old. I
believe that they called her in the article. They gave her a pseudonym and
a pseudonym. I know that they called the young girl Ashley. Does anybody
remember the pseudonym that they gave them the now grandmother Virginia. Yeah, thank
you. Yeah. So she didn't have the money to come to Chicago,
to to travel over nine hours with a pregnant young child to have an abortion,
and then pay for an abortion. And I'm pretty and now there are
resources available, there are different funds that are out now, but if you
don't have the wherewithal to know how to get those resources, you're kind of
stuck. And I'm pretty sure that this was an issue specifically with this mother
who finds out about her daughter being sexually assaulted and seeing about trying to get
her an abortion. And I also read that Mississippi specifically has only granted about
two abortions since the Job's case came out when it came to rape. Even
though it says in their trigger law that rate is and rape and incest is
an exception for people to be able to get an abortion. But when you
had, like the Jackson clinic closed because of the Job's decision, I believe
there was another clinic that closed. Where are these people going to go?
Even if you say, okay, we grant it because the victim, this
person was victimized, it was without consent, and she's a child, so
she this is incest and also rate, point blank period. Where is she
to go because the providers are no longer in that state in order to provide
a healthcare service that was desperately needed. And also another thing I wanted to
mention as an antidote, I got into a social media debate with a former
friend of mine and fascist on former who told me this right wing talking point
that is full of junk that only one percent of rapes end up in pregnancy.
I'm here to tell you people on the panel that that is a fucking
lie. These are the facts, and this is according to the Washington Post.
And I don't care how you all feel that Jeff Bezos actually owns the
Washington Post. He didn't write the article now because of violence and stigma associated
with rape, as well as different definition, there are a wide range of
statistics concerning rate. The CDC, for instance, estimates that nearly one point
three million American women were victims of rape or attempted rate in two thousand and
ten, about half were actual rates. But the r ai NN, the
Rape Abuse and Incests National Networks, set about sixty four thousand women were raped
between two thousand and five to two thousand and two thousand and four to two
thousand five, rather citing a Justice Department data. Now, the number of
rates will make a huge difference in the number of rates that result in pregnancy.
Now, the most widely cited study of this question embedded was and we're
going to have the study below in the show notes was actually published in nineteen
ninety six by the American Journal of Obstetricians in Gynecology and when determined a national
rape related pregnancy rate of five per scent are more per rape among victims were
between the ages of twelve to forty five. In between the ages of this
young girl and a study was based on a survey of four thousand and eight
adult women and over three of an over three year period, which covered a
range of questions on drug and alcohol abuse, but also included questions intended to
draw out more information on sexual sexual assaults. But regardless if the one percent
stat were true, which it isn't, pregnancy can and thus happened to rape
victims. In this case, it happened to a child, and even the
article states in Mississippi technically made exceptions for when pregnancy is from rape boards and
light threatening, but abortions granted under these exceptions are extremely rare and poorly tracked,
And in January, the New York Times reported that Mississippi made two exceptions
like I mentioned before, since the state abortion ban went into effect, and
the state requires that a ra be reported to law enforcement in order for it
to actually qualify for legal abortion. But we already and I could go into
statistics, but we don't have time for that. Of how many times that
people are actually sexually assaulted versus reporting to law enforcement because of stigma, because
of nurses telling a thirteen year old young girl, what have you been doing?
Why don't you ask the person who assault to her what he was doing.
You know, I get so sick and tired, and I'm sorry,
guys, you're just gonna have to deal with my soapbox right now. I
get so sick and tired of women being blamed for the violence that happens as
a result of sexual assault. And I'm not saying that six gender men can't
be assaulted. Yes they can, and children can be assaulted. Everybody can
be assaulted. But data already shows that this gender, women or people who
identify as women, are more on the actual spectrum of being sexually assaulted than
any other group of people. And one of the highest groups racially of women
to be sexually assaulted are black women. And I'm not even going to mention,
which I'm about to mention now that four times are likely. Black women
are four times more likely to die from pregnancy related complications compared to white women,
according to the state's Health Department. According to Mississippi, and according to
the gut Mocker Institute, sixty percent of women who seek abortions are women of
color, and about half lived below the federal poverty line. So this is
all the things that are coming against this young child who's about to raise a
child who doesn't have the money to actually raise a child, who now the
grandmother is now raising her child plus another child, and who didn't even have
enough money to take her child to Chicago so that the child will no longer
have a child. It's gross and I'm so sick and tired of hearing this
over and over again, especially people who are being victimized when it comes to
not only a person who just randomly disides to actually throw violence upon them,
but upon the state that they're actually living in. I'm done with my rant
and i just giving me a moment, but I'm giving you a moment,
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