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Comment by micromacrofoot | Hacker News Reader

It doesn't seem so hard to me to feel empathy towards a 17 year old girl that found out she was pregnant around the same time the Supreme Court leaked the overturning of Roe v Wade.

That's certainly not a recipe for making good decisions, and now since she's being tried as an adult she not only has to live with a criminal record, but her name being blasted all over the place while living in an abortion-hostile state.

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She is alleged to have aborted the fetus in April. The SCOTUS leak was in May. She was 23 weeks pregnant, she should have consulted with a doctor early in 2022. Tough to blame this on the Roe controversy when it hadn't even started yet.

This is very easy for you to say. Are you a teenage girl? Do you live in a dark-red state? Have you ever tried to consult a doctor in Nebraska about abortion?

As if deep red areas of the country are unfamiliar with abortion? They are very familiar with keeping it under the radar, but fine upstanding evangelical Christians absolutely still have abortions.

Also, there are three Planned Parenthood clinics in Omaha, Nebraska, less than two hours from Madison County. This young woman was less than a year from being legally an adult. I'd give it good odds that my 11 year old daughter could figure out she should talk to a doctor in this situation, and I sure as hell hope that by 17 she's definitely figured that out.

  - Only 3 clinics in the state, all 2 hours away
  - Only 1 clinic performs abortion at 20 weeks
  - Requires a 24 hour wait period by law
  - Requires parental consent under 18
  - Between 16-20 weeks, costs $2500-$5000

These are all pretty significant barriers for anyone without resources, especially a teen trying to hide her pregnancy.

Oh fair, I didn't follow the timeline, my mistake. Nebraska is still an abortion-hostile state though.

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