Because judges now down in Florida, they're using ridiculous excuses like
whether or not a kid, 14 years old seeking an abortion,
there whether or not them having a driver's license.
Or also other things about their maturity being based on whether or not they're
gonna grant them this opportunity to make a choice about their own bodies.
So how are these folks getting away with this?
Let's look into this because down in Florida where abortion is illegal, sorry,
it's legal until 15 weeks of pregnancy.
People under 18 years old must tell a parent or
legal guardian that they're planning to get an abortion.
Young people in the custody of the state who do not have access to a parent or
legal guardian cannot rely on foster parents or
caseworkers according to state law,
and instead have to petition a state trial court judge to obtain a judicial waiver.
So they put their fate is putting in the hands of these particular judges who knows
who they can be.
It depends on where in the state.
They end up seeing this judge, which will get to know these miners.
The miners that do have parents, but
don't want to inform them of the situation that they're in.
They have to undergo this process of asking the court for permission though.
Some and Human Rights Watch, which did an investigation on the process of
this whole thing says that the judges use some subjective reasons for
doing it because they're just folks that want to stand in front,
sit in front of folks and give their opinion anyway.
So the young person must prove that they are mature enough to have an abortion.
And under the law, the judge must use factors like emotional development and
stability, overall intelligence and
ability to accept responsibility to make that determination.
And then a bunch of examples of judges using a bunch of ridiculous ways to
go about this to determine their fate.
So in a 2020 case, an example here, a 14 year old girl, a teenage girl petitioned
for a judicial waiver because she feared she would face abuse or
homelessness if she told a parent that she was seeking an abortion.
According to court records, the judge found that she presented as a very young,
immature woman who did not provide clear and convincing evidence.
It would not be in her best interest to inform her parents, pause for a second.
So they said that she appears as very young and immature.
So therefore a young and immature woman in this particular person is teenager.
In this particular judges assumptions here shouldn't be able to make that decision.
So then are they still also very young and too immature to raise this child,
have the child go through the process of pregnancy?
>> I mean, wouldn't that be all the more reason why someone who is quite young
should be protected and taken care of?
And I think what ties this story together with the trans rights story is again,
this question of do we care in our society for people who are most vulnerable young
people, people of color, transgender people and so on.
And what does it take to merely care for them?
Obviously we know ascertaining sort of certain kinds of constructs
emotional intelligence or maturity is completely biased
based on those who are doing that ascertainment, right?
I mean, I can be completely honest and say that when I was 14 years old,
I think some elders would have considered me not mature, not because I was
inherently immature, but because they saw maturity in a certain way, right?
And so think about how this is all set up.
The burden is placed on a young person whose life is potentially
is extremely threatened if not incredibly complicated, endangered in
a certain sense by potentially having to have a teenage pregnancy, right?
The burden is now placed on a young person,
much like voting disenfranchisement laws and gerrymandering and so on.
They have to, a 14 year old or a 13 year old has to petition a state court and
try to appear palatable in the eyes of likely a highly biased judge.
That's basically setting the entire situation up to exclude
this type of critical care for young people.
>> Maybe you were once a 14 year old girl.
Imagine this type of scenario when you're facing these folks.
>> I would have never been able to petition a court to get a procedure that
I didn't even feel comfortable enough telling my parents about right.
As a fourth-year law student now, I'm just learning how to draft
a proper petition with reasonable arguments to present to a court.
So I couldn't imagine being 14 and lively and full of energy and
not really understanding what I need to do or even coming before a court.
Never seen a court before.
I couldn't imagine having to do that.
And for reasons of explaining my life, for
reasons of explaining things that happened to me.
I think it's just wrong all the way around and I think it sets a dangerous
standard because we've seen people be discriminated against, right?
For reasons that are not a fault of their own.
And this is gonna be a bad cycle.
>> And think about the other parts about this.
Okay, so they also don't want a minimization of sex education.
The condom use, teaching folks and kids how to use these types of things.
And of course that leads to more pregnancies.
And then at least these judgments and
all these other opinions about these kids in the situations that they're in,
but also something else that's out of the control of these kids.
Let's jump down to the last graphic seven here because it depends on which judge
they get in front of.
Because there's certain ones that grant these reprieve from this whole,
they at least grant them their petition for it.
But you just might get the wrong judge.
In 2021, seven of Florida's 67 counties received 65% of
all petitions for judicial bypasses.
Four of those seven counties didn't deny a single petition,
while Palm Beach County denied one in 10 petitions, and Broward denied one in 16.
But Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa,
denied more than half of all petitions in 2021.
And that's even more than in 2020,
when that same county denied nearly 40% of all petitions.
It's almost like if you're in the wrong section of town or the state,
it's just the way things have to be, doesn't seem great across the board and
judicial to me, but again, controlling folks bodies.
That's the main purpose here.