Forced Abortion

Girl Suffers Forced Abortion in Italy

Minors have no “right to choose” life in Catholic nation

By Peter J. Smith

TURIN, Italy, February 19, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An Italian judge ordered a 13 year-old girl to undergo an abortion, despite the girl's pleas to let her keep her child reports the Italian news agency, La Stampa.

The girl, Valentina, had become pregnant by her 15 year-old boyfriend, however rather than let her choose to keep her child, her parents demanded she have an abortion on the grounds that she was ruining her life by becoming a mother.

"You cannot hold this child ... you must abort, and father will never have to know,” Valentina's mother told her, saying that she did not have the money to support the child.

Despite Valentina's repeated attempts to make her parents understand she wanted to choose to keep her baby, the case went to the Court of Minors. Judge Giuseppe Cocilovo then issued the ruling to abort Valentina's child.

Under Italian law, a minor may not decide whether to keep or abort her child, and may be forced by her guardians or parents to undergo an abortion.

However, the abortion has meant nothing less than disaster for Valentina, who was confined to the psychiatric unit of Regina Margherita children's hospital in Turin after the abortion for wanting to commit suicide.

“You have made me kill, and now I kill myself, I kill myself”, cried Valentina.  "I do not want here to be," Valentina repeated. "I am not crazy, I am only evil like a dog for what my parents and the judges have obliged to make to me."

HT:  Kris Tate