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<!-- #BeginEditable "body%20text" --> 
        <h1><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The American Feminist</font></i></h1>
         
        <p><cite><a href="index.htm">The 
          American Feminist, Fall 1997</a></cite></p>
        <h1><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Desperate Young Women Kill 
          Their Newborn Babies: Fighting a Culture of Violence</font></h1>
        <blockquote><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">"A Bronx woman has 
          been charged with murdering her newborn son, who was found wrapped in 
          a plastic bag and stuffed behind a toilet in her house, police said 
          yesterday." </font> 
          <p></p>
          <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><cite>- Newsday, 6/23/97</cite></font></blockquote>
        <blockquote><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">"She arrived at 
          the prom in New Jersey last Friday night in a loose-fitting black dress...and 
          made a beeline for the bathroom.... But the girl had apparently told 
          no one - not even her boyfriend - that her loose-fitting dress hid her 
          pregnancy and that in the bathroom she had given birth to a baby boy, 
          wrapped him in a plastic bag and disposed of him in the trash." </font> 
          <p></p>
          <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><cite> - The Washington Post, 
          6/10/97</cite></font></blockquote>
        <blockquote><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">"The body of a 5- 
          to 6-pound infant girl was found by police inside a canvas tote bag 
          tucked into a crawl space at the Mukilteo home of a Holy Cross student. 
          Authorities were alerted by a Child Protective Services caseworker after 
          the student had consulted an Edmonds doctor - an estimated 24 hours 
          after the birth - because of bleeding." </font> 
          <p></p>
          <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><cite>- The Seattle Times, 
          6/5/97</cite></font></blockquote>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The stories are horrific. 
          Teen girls accused of murdering their babies only minutes after they 
          are born. Newborns who were never given names, never held or rocked 
          - instead suffocated and abandoned moments after taking their first 
          breath.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">These stories, and many others, 
          have left communities, friends, and especially families in a state of 
          shock. It is impossible to know what these girls were thinking, what 
          could have driven them to such a desperate act. It is equally difficult 
          to comprehend how the girls were able to conceal their pregnancies from 
          everyone - even their families and partners - right up to the day they 
          gave birth. One mother said she had seen her teenage daughter naked 
          the night before she gave birth and had not noticed anything remarkable 
          about the girl's figure.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">"It's pretty amazing how 
          good some teenagers are at hiding the fact that they are pregnant," 
          said Dr. Peter Harris, medical director for mental health services at 
          Jersey Shore Medical Center. "Women will wear baggy clothes or starve 
          themselves to limit their weight gain. In their denial, they say to 
          themselves, 'If I don't have a great big belly, I won't be pregnant.'" 
          According to Harris, young women will also disguise their morning sickness 
          and go to great lengths to cover up other indications that might indicate 
          that they were pregnant.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">No one knows why these young 
          women conceal their pregnancies and disavow the life inside them. Psychologists 
          point to feelings of denial, fear, confusion, and isolation. To a young 
          woman in denial, "This is a foreign body going through her, not a baby, 
          and the bonding never occurs," said Dr. Phillip Resnick, a Case Western 
          Reserve professor of psychiatry who coined the term neonaticide. "She 
          doesn't think of it as her child but as an object to get rid of."</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The young woman may find 
          herself giving birth in a college dormitory, at her parents' home, or 
          in a department store bathroom. She "gets rid of" her newborn baby by 
          stuffing tissues down the baby's throat, strangling her, or drowning 
          her in the toilet. The tiny body is thrown into a trash compactor, a 
          dumpster, stashed away in a dresser drawer, or even tossed out of a 
          window.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Approximately 250 cases of 
          neonaticide are reported to the Department of Justice each year, but 
          it is impossible to know the real number of newborns killed by their 
          parents. Some bodies are never found. Perhaps, in the most fortunate 
          of cases, a newborn who was left by her mother to die is discovered 
          and given a second chance at life.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">There is much ambivalence 
          about what to do with young mothers accused of murdering their newborn 
          babies. While some argue that such an incomprehensible act calls for 
          the harshest of punishments under the law, others believe that these 
          young women should receive compassion and help. Since 1922, England 
          has had an infanticide law providing that mothers who kill babies up 
          to a year old should face a lesser charge of manslaughter, rather than 
          be charged with murder. These women are given psychiatric treatment 
          and rarely serve prison terms.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">U.S. law does not contain 
          provisions to allow for more lenient penalties in cases of neonaticide. 
          Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson, who are accused of killing their newborn 
          son, could face the death penalty if they are found guilty of first-degree 
          murder. Yet prosecutors charged a New York college woman who killed 
          her newborn with manslaughter rather than murder. A jury found her guilty 
          of criminally negligent homicide, an even lesser charge, and sentenced 
          her to one to four years in prison.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The grotesque and unbelievable 
          nature of these acts attests to the desperation these girls are experiencing. 
          They feel isolated; they do not know where to turn. It is them against 
          the world. But something can be done and must be done to help these 
          young women.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">To reach these at-risk teens, 
          adults parents, teachers, counselors must actively encourage the discussion 
          of issues such as teen pregnancy and sexuality, and they must be willing 
          to confront young women who they suspect are pregnant. "In these infanticide 
          cases, like teen suicides, they say nobody knew," says Robert Butterworth, 
          a child trauma psychologist in Los Angeles. "But like in suicide, someone 
          - usually a close friend - generally knew, but there is this code or 
          ethic that you can't go to adults."</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Psychologists advocate open 
          communication about sexuality between parents and their children. Young 
          women need to know that no topics are off limits; they need to know 
          that they can turn to adults and not live in fear of the consequences; 
          and they need to be made aware of the resources that are available to 
          help them during a crisis pregnancy.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">"Now, more than ever, young 
          women across the country need to hear the message of FFL's College Outreach 
          Program," said FFL Executive Director Serrin Foster. "We can no longer 
          tolerate a world without compassion for young mothers and their children. 
          We must counteract the message that 25 years of abortion has ingrained 
          into society - a message that actively promotes women turning against 
          their own children, a message that an unplanned pregnancy is hopeless, 
          a message that women must choose between their life plans and their 
          children."</font></p>
        <blockquote><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">"Let woman assert 
          herself in all her native purity, dignity, and strength, and end this 
          wholesale suffering and murder of helpless children. With centuries 
          of degradation, we have so little of true womanhood, that the world 
          has but the faintest glimmering of what a woman is or should be." </font> 
          <p></p>
          <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Elizabeth Cady Stanton, <cite>The 
          Revolution 1(4):57-59, January 29, 1868</cite></font></blockquote>
        <p></p>
        <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Kerri-Ann Kiniorski, Editor, 
        <em>The American Feminist</em><br>
        Reprinted from <cite>The American Feminist, Fall 1997</cite></font><!-- #EndEditable --></font></td>
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