Its been two weeks and five days since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v, Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that affirmed the constitutional right to abortion. Since then, anti-abortion states have been rushing to enact their laws limiting or outright striking down abortion rights, ultimately making abortions illegal unless under certain pretenses (maybe). If you are a person alive today who isn’t living under a rock or off the grid, chances are you have found yourself in heated debates and discussions over who, if anybody, should have the right to an abortion.
The above tweet was a searing reminder that these situations a pregnant person may find themselves in are not so black and white. Specifically, pregnant children, who more often than not are victims of abuse and rape. According to the CDC, “The number of births to females aged 10–14 was a record low in 2016, dropping to 2,253 from 8,519 in 2000.” What this statement tells me, is that these numbers don’t account for children who are impregnated who have had an abortion. Still, that’s thousands of young girls who have been impregnated by someone likely extremely close to them, or extremely related, and thousands more we statistically don’t know about.
My response tweet above was meant to shed some light on the circumstances that likely would lead to a 9-13 year old being brought in to an abortion clinic in the 3rd trimester. “Late-term abortions” is a heavy political talking point from anti-abortionists, but not in realistic way. Usually they refer to LTA’s as procedures done by women who just decided they don’t feel like having a baby…after carrying it for 8-9 months. That’s just not reality, but what is, are young children whose bodies are not equipped to carry a child to term, needing an abortion. This tweet was meant to highlight just one of many scenarios that might lead a pregnant child to enter an abortion clinic. The following tweet and many other comments like it point out the fact that adults may be intentionally hiding their child’s pregnancy.
The reality is, and I really really feel we have to accept reality in order to have clear conversations about this, is that a young child is not going to understand or know what is happening to their body. More often than not, an adult, whether they be family, friend or teacher, will be the one to recognize that a child is pregnant. And they likely will not recognize that the child is pregnant until it is visibly obvious, see 3rd trimester.
It’s unfortunate that we even have to have these conversations, I mean really, we’re talking about men engaging in unspeakable acts against little girls they know or might even be related to. It’s horrendous and it’s a hard pill to swallow. So pour yourself a tall glass of water and one for your state governor too.
