Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Should Mentally Disabled Be Forced To Have An Abortion?

From Life News: With obvious public outcries against forced abortions in China and forced sterilizations of mentally handicapped individuals in Nazi Germany, one might assume the United States knows better.
However, today, in Nevada, the life of an 11-week-old unborn baby and the future of his or her 32-year-old mother hang in the balance as a judge considers whether or not to order the woman to undergo an abortion and sterilization against her will.
Elisa Bauer, who suffers from severe mental and physical disabilities attributed to fetal alcohol syndrome, is currently in the final weeks of her first trimester. The second-oldest of six children adopted by William and Amy Bauer in 1992, Elisa has epilepsy and is said to have the mental and social capacity of a 6-year-old....
 Since turning 18 in 1998, she has continued to remain under court-approved guardianship of her parents, who were given legal authority to make final decisions regarding her health and welfare, even as she lived in a group home.
While Elisa has maintained that she wants to carry out her pregnancy, she knows she will be unable to care for the child. The Bauers support her decision, are following all the prenatal protocol for high-risk pregnancies, and have already lined up six qualified couples who are eager to adopt Elisa’s child once he or she is born.
However, when Washoe County Social Services became aware of Elisa’s pregnancy, the department issued an informal report requesting that the Court set a status hearing to address the potential health effects Elisa’s pregnancy could have on her and her unborn child, and possibly override the mutual decision made between Elisa and her parents to have her baby.
Jason Guinsasso, the attorney for the Bauers, says that the court has no jurisdiction to intervene in any health-related decisions regarding Elisa — pregnancy included — because Elisa’s parents are the legal guardians. He adds that Washoe County Social Services Department must submit a formal petition based on substantial grounds to usurp guardianship before the County Court can get involved.
“There are no statutes that give this Court or Washoe County the authority to compel Elisa to have an abortion. Such decisions are left to the sound discretion of the duly appointed guardian(s)… To date, Washoe County has utterly failed to provide clear and convincing evidence that Mr. and Mrs. Bauer’s decision to support Elisa’s efforts to carry her child to term is unlawful or that they are not acting in a manner consistent with the best interests of Elisa’s health and welfare.”  http://www.lifenews.com/2012/10/31/court-may-force-mentally-disabled-nevada-woman-to-have-abortion/
I used to work in a nursing home in a Milwaukee, WI. area home and just before I got there, a severely mentally and physically disabled resident of the nursing home gave birth to a healthy baby boy.  The young lady was raped, even though she was in a wheelchair and had a functioning age of about 1 year old.  She was allowed to give birth to a baby and and a family was able to adopt a healthy baby.  the nursing home resident didn't appear to suffer from any long term effects from her giving birth and the family gave approval for the young lady to give birth.
Now, we have another young lady in the Reno area who is disabled but in this case, the government is trying to get the baby aborted, despite the young lady's and her guardian's request she give birth.
Unless the physical health of the mother is in danger, the government has no right or reason to intervene in this case.  The young lady and her guadians want the pregnancy to continue, so they should be given the right to choose.
Freedom of choice works both ways- if the woman wants to abort her baby, she has the right to do so and if a woman doesn't want to end the pregnancy, the government needs to butt out.

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