Students react to controversial abortion case

Should the mother of a man who impregnated a girl have the right to take her to New York to have an abortion without the knowledge of the girl's mother?

by Dina M. Tartaglla

staff writer

Whether or not a minor should be able to get an abortion without her parents' consent has become the focus of a trial occurring in Pennsylvania.

Opinion is divided on Cabrini's campus.

On, trial is Rosa Marie Hartford, mother of Michael Kilmer, a 19-year-old man who is in jail for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl.

Hartford, who lives in a small Pennsylvania town, brought her son's 13-year-old girlfriend to New York to have an abortion after she had been impregnated by Kilmer.

Kilmer and the 13-year-old girl, whose name is being withheld, had sex one July night after she passed out from drinking.

According to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, they had engaged in consensual sex many times prior to that night. However, pregnancy supposedly resulted from this particular night.

The girl realized she was pregnant and confided in several people, one .of which was Hartford.

Hartford proceeded to bring the girl to New York and with money from her son, paid for the abortion.

The 13-year-old's mother eventually found out where her daughter went and what she had done.

In September, Hartford and her son were arrested.

Kilmer is serving one year to 30 months in prison for statutory rape.

Hartford was charged with interfering with the custody of a minor.

If convicted, she could face up to six years in jail for this second-degree felony.

Sullivan County District Attorney Max Little says the prosecution is reacting "in response to a mother's horror following the realization that her 13-year-old daughter had been driven a substantial distance by people [the mother] did not even know, for a medical procedure."

Though the decision will be left in the jury's hands, many students hold varied opinions.

."I don't believe in abortion, but if I did, I don't think ~ou need your parents' consent to

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Seasonal get one," sophomore Stephanie Lally said.

Continuing-education student Bonnie Sterling disagrees.

"I believe in abortion and how women have the right to govern their own bodies. However, [Hartford) went about it the wrong way," Sterling said.

Although some may feel only for the fetus being aborted, sophomore Kelly Di Gian said she feels for the 13-yearold.

"I think it was right of [Hartford] to take her if the girl was desperate enough to find her own way of getting an abortion," Di Gian said.

Senior Allison Verdelli agrees.

"I'd rather see her have an abortion than have the baby suffer. But I would rather she had her own mother bring her to do it," Verdelli said. "If her own mother brought her it would be a different story."

"This case highlights the fact that we want teens to go to other adults if they can't go to their parents," said Sandi Vito, executive director of the National Abortion Rights Action League of Pennsylvania.

Sophomore Lisa Pappalardo finds fault with Hartford's actions, but for a different reason.

"I think [Kilmer's] mother should have tried to convince the girl to tell her own mother. She shouldn't have taken the responsibility of being her mother when she has one already," Pappalardo said.