Girl, 13, argues right to abortion: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Girl, 13, argues right to abortion: South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

"Why can't I make my own decision?'

That was the blunt question to a judge from a pregnant 13-year-old girl ensnared in a Palm Beach County court fight over whether she can have an abortion.

'I don't know,' Circuit Judge Ronald Alvarez replied, according to a recording of the closed hearing obtained Friday.

'You don't know?' replied the girl, who is a ward of the state. 'Aren't you the judge?'"

Does Florida seem like such a crazy place because it is crazy unlike everywhere else or because the stories there make the news more often?

"The judge blasted the DCF [Department of Children & Families], saying the agency never asked the court to issue an order to take the child into custody after her most recent disappearance.

"To say that I am angry at that would be an understatement," Alvarez said. "To rush into this court on an emergency basis because this child is pregnant and wants an abortion, I don't know where our priorities in life are. The priority should have been to make certain that an order to take her into custody was issued as soon as possible, and that she was found and taken off of the streets or wherever she was. But nobody cared."