This is an episode that once again illustrates the difficulty of access to abortion in the United States.
US elected officials also castigated a "war on women" on Wednesday after a Florida appeals court upheld a decision ruling that a 16-year-old girl with deceased parents was "not mature enough" to abort.
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“In what world is a 16 year old too immature to have an abortion but mature enough to bear and raise a child?
“Questioned on Twitter the elected Democrat of Ohio Joyce Beatty, supported by her colleagues Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey and Katherine Clark of Massachusetts.
"This is a dangerous and terrifying example of Florida's war on women," said the elected Democrat of this state in the southeastern United States, Lois Frankel, who deemed the decision "unacceptable" and called for "fighting for the health, safety and freedom of women".
In what world is a 16 year old too immature to receive an abortion but mature enough to commit to carrying and raising a child?
MAGA-Republicans haven't wasted any time weaponizing the loss of Roe against women and girls everywhere.
https://t.co/Dv7V9BAv5C
— Rep.
Joyce Beatty (@RepBeatty) August 17, 2022
On social networks, many Internet users also underlined the apparent inconsistency of the judgment and expressed their anger, some taking up a hashtag calling for a boycott of Florida.
Decision upheld on appeal
An appeals court on Monday upheld Escambia County Judge Jennifer Frydrychowicz's decision to deny a 16-year-old woman's request for an abortion, known as 'Jane Doe 22-B,' on the pretext that she had failed to prove "that she was mature enough to decide to terminate her pregnancy".
In Florida, abortion is still legal until the 15th week after the last period.
"Jane Doe 22-B" was only ten weeks pregnant when she made her request for an abortion because she could not obtain the consent of at least one of her parents, both deceased, an essential condition for minors wishing have an abortion in Florida.
This judgment comes less than two months after the historic about-face of the American Supreme Court, which at the end of June reconsidered the constitutional guarantee to the right to abortion that it had established in 1973 by the judgment “Roe v.
Wade”, leaving the American states to legislate freely on the question.
A dozen states have already taken the opportunity to ban abortion, most of the time without exception in cases of incest, rape or danger to the health of the mother, and women's rights associations fear that nearly half of the States will eventually be affected.
