The Youngest Mother in History. Take a Guess

You call her sensationalistic and then cite complete heresay of the same nature. Who is sensationalistic?

Just because he critiqued your blog doesn’t mean you need to be cynical. Don't hold childish grudges and snap back nonsense every time Jake says something. No need to point fingers at an invisible user typing behind an unknown computer.

Never Regret the Biggest Mistake of Your Life

I understand why you said this... but sometimes a critical eye is important in blogging. I found his comment to be irrelevant heresay and somewhat hypocritical. Why not say so?

Say so as much as you want but you don't have to say so and mock at the same time. You should be the better person by not being like him/her.

Never Regret the Biggest Mistake of Your Life

I completely agree. When thinking of the physical burden on a woman of 25 or 30, how could any child of 5 be able to bear a child? It's just...amazing.

Didn't anyone have enough sense to give the poor girl the option of abortion! Nobody should have the burden of a child so early in life. Something makes me think that the doctors wanted to make a new world record. I mean it's like children having children- it's not healthy. Not even fifteen year olds should be having kids, let alone a five year old! (And if someone says that they couldn't give her an abortion because it's a backwater 3rd world country, that's bull. If they could perform a c-section, they can perform an abortion.)

Were abortion techniques even perfected in 1972? Mightn't abortion harmed rather than helped Linda? Even if abortion techniques were up to par, the place where she lived may not have had the resources to safely perform abortions. One also has to consider her religious background- it wasn't as if she could even make the decision herself, as a five-year-old. Her parents may have decided against it due to religious convictions.

Alright, so I was making certain assumptions. But abortions have been around since the 1920's. I find it unethical that they let her have the child (especially since she was five years old and a rape victim). I guess I am thinking too modern.

The article mentions that she went to the hospital in early April for an apparent stomach tumor and delivered on May 14. She was already in her 8th month of pregnancy. This was not a stage where an abortion would have been suggested. No matter what year it was.

Yeah, ok so abortion wasn't an option. But you have to admit, it is kinda weird that they still kept the kid and raised it as her brother. I mean, this is the stuff that Soap Operas live for. (Where's Jerry Springer when ya need him??) If it was my family, I would've just put the kid up for adoption. But whatever, some families like keeping weird dynamics like that.

“Not even fifteen year olds should be having kids, let alone a five year old! (And if someone says that they couldn't give her an abortion because it's a backwater 3rd world country, that's bull.”
-Annushka

Different cultures have different beliefs, laws, and customs. I believe it’s bull to denigrate a whole society because they do not believe as we do. I also believe that what happened is tragic. Many countries have laws against abortion. In Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela abortion is severely restricted or illegal. “More than 1 million infants – and an estimated 70,000 adolescent mothers – die each year in the developing world because young girls are marrying and having children before they are physically ready for parenthood…”

This site lists countries all over the world that have legal statutes that clearly define the “Age of Consent”. It identifies the legal age that males/females, males/males, and females/females can legally make the decision for consensual sex. For example in Colombia, South America, a girl can have sex as early as fourteen and boys can have sex at twelve years old. Iowa, Missouri, and South Carolina in the United States all allow boys as young as fourteen years old to have consensual sex. The girls have to be 16, 17, and 16 respectively. (Fourteen is the same age limit as for Peru.)

I was surprised by a report that lists the minimum marrying age (once they are married, they can legally have sex.) from 12-20 in countries all over the world. There is also sex discrimination in these rules that have different minimum ages for girls than for boys. This information was compiled from reports made to a subcommittee of The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child . The information from the subcommittee “States Parties to the Committee on the Rights of the Child” was used to create a report by Angela Melchiorre “At What Age?... are school-children employed, married and taken to court?”.

In her report Ms. Melchiorre states that “Often taken as the guarantor of childhood until 18, the Convention on the Rights of the Child in fact states in article 1 that: "a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier". The latter element, a limitation, substantially weakens the operative part of the article and provides justification for differing interpretations and practice. It is an acknowledgement that not even the age of majority is the same in all countries.” So, a law on the books that says they can marry at twelve makes the consent law useless.

According to the Kensey Institute, “the United States has a particular problem with teenage pregnancy, with nearly ten percent of teenagers between the ages of fifteen and nineteen getting pregnant in any one year. This is ten times the rate in the Netherlands or Japan.” In Peru, Nigeria, and Chile abortion is illegal but the illegal abortions still take place and that abortion rate is HIGHER than the U.S.

One of the key areas to focus on to prevent early pregnancy is to help women/girls become more educated. The Take Action Now campaign by Save the Children is part of a global effort to prevent early marriage and motherhood through education. There are over 115 million children worldwide that are not in school and 60% of those are female. Africa, Niger, Liberia, Mali, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Guatemala, Haiti, Nepal, Nicaragua and Yemen have the highest rates of early pregnancies and infant mortality rates for their children. In these countries, 48% of the girls aged 15-19 are married. A quick look at the Life Expectancy tables for these countries and simple math reveals that the average life expectancy for these ten countries is 55 years old. These peoples reach middle age at 27! It can then be expected that they would procreate at an earlier age than other countries. Their menses also start earlier. In Bangladesh the “ … duty of father is to give girls in marriage before menstruation... his daughter has come of age and must be married, following the law texts which say that if girl sees her menses in her father’s house unmarried, the father incurs a sin equal to murder of a Brahmin, and the girl becomes defamed as if she was a woman of low birth”

My point in all this is that there are varying circumstances and customs that create the differences in all of us. Whether you compare yourself to all those in attendance at Bryn Mawr, all Mawrters to other girl’s schools, or all Mawrters to women around the world. Our best advantage as women is that we can understand those differences and support each other no matter what our background is.

Never Regret the Biggest Mistake of Your Life

Did you know that even if these laws do exist in some countries, they do not exist in free trade zones supported by United States with in these countries. The average age of children working in these sweat shops is 15, girls are preferred because of their hand-eye coordination. They are forced to take birth control, like clockwork, as they walk in. If it fails, their options are to lose their jobs (in most cases the only means of finacing in their families) or take a shot to cause an abortion. Later the needles are thrown in a pile in the side yard of the factory. Isn't that terrible, and the united states supports it by allowing and encouraging our leading retailers to purchase the products. Don't worry, though, the girls at least get a fair wage of 20-40 cents per hour and rarely have to work more than 16 hours per day.