ACLU challenging Alabama abortion law allowing fetuses to have attorneys
Source: Associated Press, via AL.com
By The Associated Press
on March 19, 2015 at 7:28 AM, updated March 19, 2015 at 7:29 AM
The American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday asked a federal judge to block an Alabama law that allows a fetus to be represented in court when a minor is seeking judicial permission for an abortion.
While abortion opponents have rolled out a variety of new restrictions on abortion in recent years -- including new requirements on clinics and doctors -- ACLU staff attorney Andrew Beck said the Alabama law was unique. ... "This particular law is one of a kind," Beck said.
Alabama minors must have permission from their parents or a judge to have an abortion. Alabama legislators in 2014 changed the judicial permission process to allow a judge, at his or her discretion, to appoint a guardian ad litem "for the interests of the unborn child." The law also requires that local district attorneys are notified of the hearing and can question the minor and call witnesses.
....
"It puts teens on trial to get a constitutionally protected procedure. It's adversarial. She loses her anonymity because the district attorney or guardian ad litem can call in witnesses and interrogate the child," said Susan Watson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama.
Read more: http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/03/aclu_challenging_alabama_abort.html#incart_river
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)"Alabama you've got the weight on your shoulder that's breaking your back." Neil Young
Myrina
(12,296 posts)OMFG.
Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)That is not progress
father founding
(619 posts)Cletus, whats up today? Uh nothing, lets open up that can of worms.
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)The party that stands for smaller government and freedom from regulation, this has to be the most intrusive and egregious over-stepping of government authority perpetrated. The state forcing females to carry unwanted pregnancies to full term without the freedom of safe and legal choice reduces women's rights and freedoms to the level of cattle! I don't know how any woman could support this, how any man who has a mother, wife, and daughter could support this, or how any person who respects personal freedom and individual human rights could support this - not just in Alabama, but anywhere on earth!
CaptainTruth
(6,594 posts)Government small enough to fit in a uterus.
Don't forget Jeb Bush & Terri Schaivo, they literally want to control your right to live & die & override your medical decisions.
Geronimoe
(1,539 posts)Why fight the Taliban when we have these disgusting fundamentalist judges?
A fetus does not get US citizenship unless and until is it born. State birth certificates are not issued at inception, rather upon birth.
This judge likely wants to also appoint State Guardianship over sperm cells. Another right-wing authoritarian moron, that can't understand separation of State and his personal idiotic religious beliefs.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)have yet to grasp the concept of "personhood" as per the Constitution. The same concept that keeps a conservative court upholding the right of Abortions.
old guy
(3,283 posts)HockeyMom
(14,337 posts)CaptainTruth
(6,594 posts)Even ignoring the fact that a fetus isn't legally a person, how would it indicate consent to representation?
Alabama is a very, very messed up place.
brer cat
(24,578 posts)until servitude for women is enshrined in law. Why does ANY woman ever vote for those neanderthals????
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)You don't want an abortion? Don't have one. Leave everyone else alone.
Why don't they fight WAR as fervently as this bullshit?
We know why. The PTB want us fighting among ourselves. Divide and conquer.
Telcontar
(660 posts)Leave everyone else alone.
See how that looks? To understand their position, you must see it is just as moral an imperative to them. They see it as saving a child's life.
PassingFair
(22,434 posts)Not the same thing at ALL.
They have no "moral imperative" over MY body.
Telcontar
(660 posts)And thus it continues to be a battlefield in the culture wars; neither sude grants any legitimacy to the other point of view.
PassingFair
(22,434 posts)I understand their point of view.
I just don't give legitimacy to their claims of ownership and determination over my body.
OR a slave.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)and that is why politicians on both sides of the aisle never, ever, seem to fix what they deem to be problems. If you don't have hot button issues to stir people up with then how do you get re-elected? They want us fighting amongst ourselves so we don't realize that 90% of the people in congress are there for one reason only- to make themselves richer. Once the cameras are off, Boehner and Pelosi are probably the best of buddies, and laugh at us over drinks at the end of the day.
malthaussen
(17,204 posts)... except people?
-- Mal
vlyons
(10,252 posts)laws be required to adopt the children born from unwanted pregnancies. They're assholes, and slut-shamers, and hypocrites, and just generally nasty mean-spirited people.
niyad
(113,364 posts)is that each of them has to sign documents affirming full financial responsibility for all the womenn and the children they force to be born from the pregnancy until that child is 22 or graduates from college, whichever comes later.
put THEIR money where their mouths are.
PassingFair
(22,434 posts)And the "re-homing" kiddie porn/rape business!!
uppityperson
(115,677 posts)aside from mandating parental notification which is asinine, there is no need for all that involvement and loss of anonymity. Yes, pregnant teens may need help for dealing with a not good situation, but to mandate all this for everyone is stupid.
lark
(23,121 posts)Hell no, they hate us and the very idea of us having the freedom to choose not to have some man's baby, whether or not he's involved with the actual child being totally irrelevant to them. Heck, I won't even drive through the south anymore, had too many issues back when I was travelling with 2 long haired guys and a Chinese woman back in 1980. The hatred was palpable and scary and this state doesn't seem to have progressed any at all since then, though most of the rest of the nation has moved forward.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)jmowreader
(50,560 posts)Alabama has a 20-week abortion ban. Even My Cousin Vinny could figure out how to get an abortion case continued until the defendant has been pregnant for 21 weeks.
Response to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)
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Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)I am getting the hell out of this country, and taking my grandchildren with me. The insanity is just getting worse and worse.
azureblue
(2,148 posts)that the newborn is not a person until it is baptized. But they ignore that part.... Too.
Telcontar
(660 posts)I can't find that in my bible
Panich52
(5,829 posts)education or finding a job.
KansDem
(28,498 posts)kiranon
(1,727 posts)Can the fetus be charged with manslaughter if the mom to be or not to be dies? Will the fetus be given an eviction notice? Be charged rent? False representation? Invasion of privacy? Battery when it's little fist or foot punches at the mom from within? Will the child be born with bad credit when it doesn't pay for the attorney's services in utero? At a minimum, in all cases, there would be ineffective assistance of counsel - failure to communicate with the client and get the client's permission for attorney to proceed.
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)is this pro bono work or do they schedule future billing?