This morning, I read with mounting horror the story of a ten year old girl being forced to go to term and give birth to her rapist’s child. Yes, you heard me right, a ten year old child, pregnant by her rapist and being forced to carry the foetus to term.
That the back story to this sorry tale is, to me, so believable as to be almost mundane is depressing in itself. A child raped by the partner of the primary caretaker. A family in denial about the abuse being perpetrated under their roof. A visit to the doctors where advice was ignored and an eventual visit to the hospital that confirmed the pregnancy, when the child was determined to be seven months pregnant.
This child is American.
This child is ten years old.
This child is ten years old and is seven months pregnant by her rapist.
This child is ten years old and is seven months pregnant by her rapist and is going to have to go through a forced birth at full term. Because, this child is ten years old and is seven months pregnant by her rapist in a state that has a 24 week limit on abortion with no exceptions even in cases of rape.
This child is ten years old and is seven months pregnant and is going to have her child's body ripped apart, again. As it has been ripped apart by her rapist so shall it be ripped apart by the state.
So, as the anti-choicers cry "we just want to protect the lives of the innocent.....what about the child? We are all about the child...." One indeed does have to ask, what about the child? To write this article I wanted to highlight the medical risks for a ten year old giving birth. However it was incredibly difficult to find any stats related to pre-teen pregnancy and the associated risks for taking the foetus to term, presumably because it is, thankfully, rather rare. So, for illustrative purposes, we will have to go with the risks associated with teen pregnancy and double down on them.
Did you know that?
girls under the age of 15 are five times more likely to die in pregnancy than women in their 20s, and that babies born to younger mothers are also at greater risk.
How much do you think that death multiplier increases by when you are a pre-teen?
Did you know that?
complications in pregnancy are the “number one killer” of girls and young women aged 15-19, the report says, adding that 50,000 teenage girls and young women die during pregnancy and childbirth every year, in many cases because their bodies are not ready to bear children
How much do you think that death multiplier increases by when you are a pre-teen?
The War on Women. The war on frightened, abused, raped and pregnant pre-teens. This child is ten years old. This child is pregnant by her rapist. This child is being forced to risk her life too protect the life of a child that does not yet exist. The state has valued the life of a foetus over the life of this ten year old child.
The state? Wisconsin. Sadly, I doubt there will even be a shrug of indifference from the lawmakers who created this law if this child dies as a result of this pregnancy. After all we have a war on women and everyone knows there are casualties in any war. Including, it seems, ten year old children, seven months pregnant by their rapist.
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Sources for article
http://smd12364.newsvine.com/
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