Politics
Monday January 12, 2004
Court Rules Against Bush: No Guardians for Unborn Children
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DAYTONA BEACH, Florida, January 12, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Florida court ruled two to one in favour of denying Florida Governor Jeb Bush's appeal that the unborn child of a severely disabled woman be appointed a guardian while the child was still in the womb. The woman, 23 year-old J.D.S., delivered a healthy baby girl in August of 2003. The appeal continued despite the child's birth, because of the ground-breaking nature of the decision.
Under Florida law, a guardian can be appointed for any "person" who cannot make decisions for themselves. The law does not explicitly mention the foetus. The majority judges in this decision wrote that in order to be entitled to a guardian, J.D.S.'s foetus would have to be a person, but under the Roe decision, "'the word 'person'. . . does not include the unborn."
Judge Robert J. Pleus, Jr. dissented strongly against the decision of the other judges, referring throughout his statement to the "unborn child" as opposed to the "foetus", as his opponents did. Pleus wrote that the words foetus and embryo are "confusing, outdated and meaningless. Because the majority concludes that an unborn, viable child is not a 'person' or a 'minor' unless the Legislature says so, I would urge the Legislature to overturn this decision and affirm the fact that an unborn child is a person. Such action would be a clear and unambiguous acknowledgment of human life."
Although a delay in the initial decision allowed for the healthy delivery of baby "S," the original court order was for J.D.S. to undergo an abortion.
Concerned Women for America president Sandy Rios, who supported Bush's appeal said, "It was a terrible thing for this woman to be raped by a person who was assigned to care for her. We certainly consider any sexual assault a terrible crime, but the sadness is only compounded if we also subject this poor girl to a procedure that we know to be harmful to women." She said that to abort the child would only make a tragic situation worse.
Read local coverage at:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/7682238.htm
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