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Tilted Cat Head
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State ends battle; teen has abortion
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11556764.htm
The battle over whether a 13-year-old foster child could end her pregnancy ended Tuesday when the state decided not to continue its court challenge.
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER, NOAH BIERMAN AND LESLEY CLARK
cmarbin@herald.com
WEST PALM BEACH - A 13-year-old foster child whose decision to have an abortion ignited a legal battle with state officials quietly ended her pregnancy Tuesday, after GovJeb Bush announced the state would no longer fight a judge's order.
Attorneys for the girl declined to discuss the procedure late Tuesday, citing the girl's desire to safeguard her privacy.
''I am of the understanding that this case is over, both legally and medically,'' said Howard Simon, head of the Florida American Civil Liberties Union, which had helped represent the girl in court proceedings.
Said Maxine Williams, the girl's longtime attorney at Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County: ``The court ruled, and the governor gave up. . . I'm just glad the whole thing is over.''
While previously fighting to thwart the abortion, the Department of Children & Families had argued that state law made it impermissible for the department to ``consent to sterilization, abortion or termination of life support.''
But on Tuesday, Marilyn Munoz, a DCF spokeswoman in West Palm Beach, said: ``We will not interfere with anything. We will comply with what the judge ordered.''
At an 11 a.m. hearing Tuesday, Palm Beach Circuit Judge Ronald Alvarez lifted a Fourth District Court of Appeal stay that had become the only legal obstacle to the girl, known only as L.G. in court documents, getting the abortion.
The stay had been in place since Monday evening, when DCF had appealed Alvarez's order that the girl's lawyers transport her to a clinic for the procedure.
''As the days go by, the circumstances become more compelling and the further delay further puts this child's life at risk,'' Alvarez said in court.
Earlier Tuesday, the governor unexpectedly told reporters that his administration would discontinue efforts to halt the abortion, clearing the way for the girl to proceed.
DCF ''did the right thing to make the initial appeal to make sure that this was reviewed carefully,'' Bush said. ``We're talking about the loss of a life.''
''Look, if the judge has ruled, it's time to move on,'' Bush said. ``It's a tragedy that a 13-year-old child would be in a vulnerable position where she could be made pregnant and it's a tragedy that the baby will be lost. There's no good news in this at all.''
Williams, the girl's attorney, said L.G.'s legal team fought vigorously to end the case quickly, fearing DCF would seek to prolong the proceedings until it would no longer be safe for L.G. to end her pregnancy. ''We were determined not to let that happen,'' Williams told The Herald.
The plight of L.G., who was taken from her parents four or five years ago due to abuse and neglect, sparked an outcry once her pregnancy and efforts to terminate it became public.
To children's advocates, who have become a powerful force in Florida in response to years of child welfare scandals, L.G. symbolized DCF's failure to safeguard and protect children in its care.
To antiabortion activists, who have found a powerful ally in Bush, the case was a reminder of their inability to abolish a procedure they believe is tantamount to murder.
''We have two victims,'' said Lynda Bell, a spokeswoman for Florida Right to Life. ``We have a 13-year-old who has been victimized, as well as her baby.''
L.G. ran away from a DCF-licensed group home in early or mid-January, and became pregnant the month she was a runaway. Three weeks ago, L.G. was told she was pregnant, records show. After being counseled about her choices, she told caseworkers she wished to have an abortion.
LEGAL BATTLES
The procedure was scheduled for April 26. But before L.G. arrived at the clinic, DCF attorneys asked Judge Alvarez to halt the procedure. A week of legal wrangling followed.
Williams said her office informed DCF of the child's intentions -- the only legal requirement, in her opinion. She questioned why DCF lawyers waited to intervene.
''They've known about it for two weeks,'' she said.
Others questioned why DCF sought to block the abortion in the first place; for many years, state officials have turned a blind eye while foster children routinely terminated unwanted pregnancies, some juvenile court judges said.
''I have done this for 10 years,'' said Cindy Lederman, Miami's chief juvenile judge, who presides over foster care and adoption cases. ``If a child wishes to have an abortion, she gets an abortion.''
Said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri Beth Cohen, who presided over child-welfare cases until a transfer two years ago: ``During my six years there, this never became an issue.''
Often, foster children who became pregnant would end their pregnancies without ever appearing before a judge, said Nancy Barshter, a former assistant attorney general who founded, then managed the state's child welfare legal services offices in Fort Lauderdale and Tampa.
`VERY LOW-KEY'
''The key to it is that it was done very low-key,'' said Barshter, who retired from the Attorney General's Office two years ago. ``It wasn't brought before the court, and it wasn't discussed among the lawyers unless something else was going on, such as the child had been raped or was truly emotionally disturbed.''
Anita Bock, who headed the Miami DCF office until she was asked to resign in 1998, said abortions were not an issue during her tenure.
''For all the years I worked at DCF as the district administrator in Miami-Dade, we allowed these decisions to be made by adults acting in the best interest'' of the child, she said.
''The governor should stay out of an issue that has for years been handled quietly and with dignity at the local level, in a manner consistent with what is truly in the best interest of the children DCF so often fails to protect and care for as it should.'' added Bock, who is now a consultant based in Marin County, Calif.
Bush called judges' assertions that teens in DCF custody routinely get abortions ``troubling.''
''If that's the case, [and] it happens all the time, I'm not aware of that,'' Bush said. ``It's very troubling that children are put in a position, irrespective of whether they're in the custody of the state, where they feel compelled to have an abortion. It's a sad fact and there's an added responsibility when the state has some degree of responsibility over the well-being of that child.''
NO NOTIFICATION LAW
Ken Connor, former president of the Christian group Focus on the Family and a lawyer who represented Bush in the Terri Schiavo case, said the decision not to appeal was legally wise.
''Florida has no parental notification statute for minors who want to have an abortion because of its activist state Supreme Court,'' he said. ``As a matter of law . . . parents don't have a legal right to stop a 13-year-old from having an abortion. In this case, the state, which has custody of this child, can't have rights superior to the rights a parent would have.''
Herald staff writer Lisa Arthur contributed to this report.
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