Ariz. Girl to Be Sent Out of State for Abortion

Arizona officials confirmed Wednesday that they planned to send a 14-year-old girl, who says she was raped, out of state for a late-term abortion.

Officials said the unidentified ward of the state, who is 23 weeks pregnant, received permission for the controversial operation, generally not performed in the state, earlier this month from Superior Court Judge William Sargeant.

The judge has ordered officials of the state Department of Economic Security to enforce the order. It was not immediately clear when the abortion would take place.

“Really, none of us want to see an abortion take place,” Arizona Gov. Jane Dee Hull said in her regular radio appearance Wednesday morning on KTAR-AM in Phoenix. “But we are where we are, and the court has ordered it.”

Details of the case remained sketchy because of the confidentiality granted juveniles, but officials said the girl asked for the abortion several months ago and then ran away. Hull said she had frequently run away since the state took over her care when she was 5. It was not until recently, apparently, that she was back in state custody.

A Hull spokeswoman said the girl had undergone a medical examination and an evaluation by a psychologist. She also received a special visit by a veteran caseworker.

An official of Planned Parenthood of Central and Northern Arizona called the judge’s decision the “right thing to do.”

“Were this heart surgery and the facilities were not there to treat her, we would not hesitate to take her to another state for care,” Planned Parenthood Education Director Joseph Feldman said. “This is the same.”

But anti-abortion activists said the state must appeal the judge’s decision before it was too late.

“The state should have an interest in fostering life, not in supporting, sanctioning and otherwise becoming involved in fostering the death of a child,” said John Jakubczyk, president of Arizona Right to Life.