Mercy for a Young Girl

One of the reasons I seldom read the newspaper is because, invariably, every time I pick it up I read something that makes me so mad I want to spit! To charge a 15-year-old girl with manslaughter (“Girl, 15, Charged With Leaving Baby in Trash,” Aug. 31) is only to institutionalize the abuse and pain she has already suffered. At the age of 17, I was forced to give up my newborn son for adoption. The nightmares, anguish and guilt I have suffered for the past 24 years have been hellish.

Do you truly think that a 15-year-old girl could casually and without thought leave her newborn child in a trash can? Obviously she is doing the best she can do in an unbearable situation. The girl’s parents didn’t even know she was pregnant, so you can imagine how safe she felt telling them.

Over the past several years the media has carried the message of the fight to deprive women--and our youth--of necessary information they need to make intelligent, healthful and supported choices around birth control. Some No-Choice advocates and so-called Christians say they care about human life. However, they have helped set the stage for this frightened and damaged teen-ager to abandon her child without counsel. And when she does, they further abuse and punish her. This is sick, sick, sick.

JUDY C. WAHL

Ventura