Gov. Jeb Bush's opposition to abortion is sincere, but it has taken him too far in the tragic matter of a young rape victim who is between five and six months pregnant. The woman, who has no family to speak on her behalf, is severely retarded, autistic and suffers from cerebral palsy and seizure disorder. She cannot speak or walk without help and weighs only 88 pounds. She's so disabled that bringing a child to full term might threaten her life. But the governor apparently doesn't want abortion to be an option.
On Tuesday, Bush overrode a decision of a Department of Children and Families attorney and said he would seek to have an Orlando judge appoint a guardian for a fetus being carried by a 22-year-old rape victim who is mentally disabled. The DCF attorney had dropped a request to the court to provide a guardian for the fetus in light of a 1989 decision from the Florida Supreme Court ruling that such appointments are "clearly improper." Despite the ruling, Bush pushed to have a fetal guardian appointed, calling it "entirely appropriate."
Not only is it inappropriate, it demonstrates a lack of compassion for a young woman who is in this condition because DCF failed to protect her from attack in one of its own state-licensed group homes.
Under Florida's Constitution, women are able to avoid the untenable situation of being made a legal adversary to their developing fetus. Under the state's privacy right, the mother (or in this case, a guardian appointed to represent the mother) is free to make decisions regarding her body based on her own interests. The state's high court understood that the presence of a guardian for the unborn baby would guarantee a legal wrangle that will sap precious time. The further along in a pregnancy a woman is, the more dangerous an abortion procedure becomes.
The governor would do better to concern himself with this question: How could this rape have happened under state care? Yet, her story is similar to an increasing number of others, including a 28-year-old severely retarded Homestead women who needed an abortion following a rape, after it was discovered that bringing the child to term would likely kill her. These are the stories that should motivate a governor to act.
