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Changing Laws Affecting Mothers
In the U.S., 10-year old girls are in elementary school. I
wonder how well elementary schools are prepared to help young mothers adjust to
pregnancy and stay in school. I wonder how many churches and pregnancy centers
help child mothers through pregnancy. I have not read much about prolife positions on the care of girl-mothers.
Recently, during the
time of an average pregnancy, several American states have passed laws setting early
restrictions on when a mother may legally end a pregnancy. It’s hard to keep up
with the variations in language that permit abortions under certain conditions.
Rumors abound. It is not surprising to learn that many women have questions (Shugerman,
2019).
An Alabama proposal debated last week prohibited doctors
from aborting a fetus when it is “in utero.” The only proposed exception
permitting a later abortion would be a serious risk to the mother’s health (Paul
& Wax-Thibodeaux, 2019). Unlike other heartbeat laws, Alabama’s
proposal did not include an exception for incest or rape. In case you are
wondering, girls have delivered healthy babies. But there isn’t much to read about the
mental health of these very young mothers.
On Facebook, conservative women and men see the restrictive
abortion trend as progress toward a total ban on abortion in all 50 states. It is
no secret that conservatives hope to undo the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v.
Wade, which broadened laws permitting women to have an abortion.
So far, no states have technically banned abortion. Instead,
they pose restrictions that would make it very difficult for a pregnant girl or woman
to get a legal abortion. The punishment for an abortion appears to fall on the
physicians rather than the women. Thus, it seems in these debates about laws, a
woman is not a moral agent. It would seem a woman may mentally choose to have
an abortion but may not legally obtain one if she waits too long or fails to
comply with other rules governing her pregnancy.
Politically it makes sense to punish physicians rather than
women. Perhaps it also makes political sense to make exceptions to an all-out
ban on abortion in order to undo the horrors of rape and incest. But in other regions of
the country, a complete ban on abortions might make political sense. By
political sense I mean, the majority of voters in some states want a particular
type of abortion law that is different from the laws in other states.
Now back to Sally
We usually think of teen girls when we think of young mothers.
But, though rare, elementary school girls do get pregnant. The youngest and
most famous young mother, Lina, was of kindergarten age (Yahoo,
2007). Presumably, girls will be having children as more and more laws
approach an all out ban on abortion. It won’t matter to the lawmakers if the girls were raped by
friends or relatives or strangers. It won’t matter to the lawmakers if the young parents were both
children. Girls will be pregnant and will not be having an abortion.
We know girls will be delivering babies as they have done around the world for years. An unknown number of more girls will be pregnant when abortions are banned. Society has become more accepting of single teen mothers. But you don't hear much about girl mothers. An ethical society will need to change its
institutions to respond to the needs of girl mothers in places where abortion is illegal.
As far as biological maturity, it has been documented for
years that girls begin puberty at ever earlier ages. According to Texas A&M,
American girls got their period about age 16-17 just a 100 years ago.
Currently, the average age is 12-13 with many having an earlier start, e.g.,
age 10. This age fits with the historical record of very young mothers—there’s a higher
frequency of mothers at age 10 than for the younger years.
Changing Marriage and Relationship Patterns
Children can marry in many states. Between 2000 and 2010,
about 248,000 American children got married. Most were girls and the youngest
were 12 (McCoy,
2018). Thus, presumably, young mothers could be cared for by the fathers of
their children, if those fathers had sufficient income to support a young
family. This of course is theoretical. We know so many teen mothers are single.
Despite the laws permitting child marriage, the average age of marriage has
increased in the US. Recently, women were typically 27 and men 29 (Abadi,
2018).
The bottom ethical line is, even if child marriage is legal, it is not a solution to the problem of very young mothers. And one must ask the ethical question: Is child marriage ethical? Can a child consent to marriage? Should parents have the right to consent to their children marrying at age 12 or whatever age? More importantly, does anyone think these young girls became pregnant by choice? Are they not victims of sexual assault?
Some single mothers are able to earn a living and care for their
children. But it isn’t easy. Girl mothers are even more dependent on others than are 16-17-year-old
mothers. The attitudes of parents and her local culture will be
vital to the welfare of girl-mothers and their children.
Why Look at Extreme Cases?
If a governing group wishes
to make laws consistent with ethical principles, then one must consider how such
a law might affect people who are different in some important way to the
average person governed by the law.
Laws by their nature are coercive. Laws impose rules limiting the freedom of those governed by the law.
Ethical laws ought to consider morally relevant facts. Some
elementary school age girls can and do get pregnant. They are victims of rape. Is it right for lawmakers to insist nine and ten year old girls to give birth?
So, who gets to make the decision for the care of these pregnant girls? How will the institutions of society support pregnant children at school, church, and in the community when girls must be pregnant for up to nine months?
So, who gets to make the decision for the care of these pregnant girls? How will the institutions of society support pregnant children at school, church, and in the community when girls must be pregnant for up to nine months?
Are sex education programs effective for girls who do not
want to be pregnant in fourth or fifth grade? Can a girl really fend off a rapist?
Are parents and law makers fully aware that most women and men have sex before they marry? And a significant number of people have sex before they are legally adults? Are decision-makers fully aware of how many girls and young teens are at risk of becoming pregnant as a result of sexual assault?
Do numbers even matter when a law is made? That is, shouldn't a law be written so that the lives of ten, one hundred, or a thousand lives are not harmed?
Are parents and law makers fully aware that most women and men have sex before they marry? And a significant number of people have sex before they are legally adults? Are decision-makers fully aware of how many girls and young teens are at risk of becoming pregnant as a result of sexual assault?
Do numbers even matter when a law is made? That is, shouldn't a law be written so that the lives of ten, one hundred, or a thousand lives are not harmed?
Adult women can vote and have a voice in decisions about
laws that govern their reproductive rights. But who speaks for the girls?
If an unborn child is a person with the rights of a person,
who protects the rights of that unborn person? What defines a person? Is a person a
being with a heartbeat, a brainwave, a potential to live without a biological
dependency on another human? Those are the decisions lawmakers have considered when writing laws limiting abortion.
When it comes to life and death decisions about people, it makes sense to think about end-of-life care as well as beginning-of-life care. If life is sacred, as is if often claimed, ethical people ought to be concerned about preserving life from conception to the grave.
In all of these decisions, one ought to consider who is responsible for the lives at issue? Ethical decisions require an ethical decision-maker. If women are not permitted to make decisions about their pregnancy, then they are not considered moral agents. Instead, the lawmakers and the physicians become the de facto moral agents who decide life and death.
When it comes to life and death decisions about people, it makes sense to think about end-of-life care as well as beginning-of-life care. If life is sacred, as is if often claimed, ethical people ought to be concerned about preserving life from conception to the grave.
In all of these decisions, one ought to consider who is responsible for the lives at issue? Ethical decisions require an ethical decision-maker. If women are not permitted to make decisions about their pregnancy, then they are not considered moral agents. Instead, the lawmakers and the physicians become the de facto moral agents who decide life and death.
If governing bodies
do not trust women to make an ethical decision about their pregnancy, who will
they trust to make an ethical decision about their pregnant girls? The governing body has assumed the moral authority and abbrogated any rights of parents.
If the unborn are truly persons, why not change birth certificates, elligbility for medical services, tax laws about counting dependents and so forth? Should insurance companies offer life insurance to pregnant girls and women in case of a miscarriage or still birth? Why isn't it common to hold funeral services when a woman has a miscarriage? I do not see much evidence that societies focused on forcing children to give birth cares much about those girls who have been raped.
Abortion Ethics
You might suspect that people of many religions have
considered the ethical issues involved in abortion decisions. There really are
many different cases that can challenge any ethical principles concerned with
harm to mothers and unborn children as well as concerns about the rights of the
unborn, mothers, and fathers. Laws without exceptions are simply stated and do not require moral judgment. Ethical decisions require wisdom. Ethical decisions may sometimes requuire people to make difficult choices. Ethically, one should err on the side of life, but one should not ignore the sacred lives of little girls who have become pregnant because of some rapist.
Extreme ethical positions can evoke disgust.
Extreme ethical positions make the holders of such positions look like they don't care about people.
Conservative Christians have made extreme pro-choice people look uncaring and immoral with pictures and videos showing the destruction of babies aborted near term. The images evoke disgust.
Liberal Christians are concerned about the lives of women destroyed by pregnancies due to brutal rapes. And conservative Christians don't seem to care about these women when they insist they deliver their rapist's child. The sexual assualt of children is disgusting. It ought to evoke an emotional response. Is it not equally disgusting to force little girls to give birth?
Extreme ethical positions can evoke disgust.
Extreme ethical positions make the holders of such positions look like they don't care about people.
Conservative Christians have made extreme pro-choice people look uncaring and immoral with pictures and videos showing the destruction of babies aborted near term. The images evoke disgust.
Liberal Christians are concerned about the lives of women destroyed by pregnancies due to brutal rapes. And conservative Christians don't seem to care about these women when they insist they deliver their rapist's child. The sexual assualt of children is disgusting. It ought to evoke an emotional response. Is it not equally disgusting to force little girls to give birth?
Examples of ethical thinking about life and abortion: Family
Research Council, BBC,
Focus
on the Family, MSNBC,
Additional Notes.
The case about Sally is fictional but based on the facts that girls aged 10-11 do give birth to babies.
Less is known about early puberty in boys, but a similar
decline in the onset of puberty is evident. There are theories about why this declining
age of puberty has happened for girls and boys, but definitive answers are
lacking.
Young fathers are more rare than young mothers. In 1998,
Sean Stewart was permitted to miss school to be with his 16-year-old girlfriend
when she delivered their child. He was 11 and she was 15 when she became
pregnant (Watson-Smyth,
1998).
In 2010, a young couple, age 14, appeared to have community
support according to the story by Blake in The
Telegraph.
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