A former state court official and a counselor for pregnant women today criticized an Alabama court ruling allowing a 12-year-old girl who was raped by an adult relative to have an abortion without parental consent.

They said the girl was not mature enough to make the decision and not equipped to deal with what they said would be the negative long-term consequences.

Last week, the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals upheld a juvenile court's ruling that the girl's horrific circumstances warranted allowing a waiver to the requirement for parental consent for a minor to have an abortion. State law allows for waivers.

The district attorney in the girl's county opposed the waiver and appealed the juvenile court decision, which came on June 27. Neither the girl's name nor the county was made public in the appeals court opinion.

Win Johnson, who was legal director for the Administrative Office of Courts under former Chief Justice Roy Moore, and Lorie Mullins, executive director of COPE Pregnancy Center in Montgomery, held a news conference today at the state judicial building.

Johnson spoke both about his staunch opposition to abortion overall and about leaving it up to a child whether to have the procedure.

He said it's stunning that courts would issue an opinion saying that a 12-year-old "was mature enough -- and I'm going to put this in its starkest terms -- to decide to murder her own child in her womb."

"Now, nobody has said that to her, I bet you, in any of her counseling," Johnson said. "Nobody has explained that to her in its starkest, rawest form, like that. But what if it was, what if she really thought through it, even as a 12-year-old and said, 'Gosh, I don't want that on my conscience.' "

Johnson said the district attorney could have appealed the waiver decision to the Alabama Supreme Court but said that the deadline to do so has passed.

Mullins said she has counseled hundreds of pregnant women, including those considering abortion and those after abortions. Mullins said the aftermath of abortion is grimmer than what women expect and often leads to depression, substance abuse and difficulty with relationships. A child entering the sixth grade should not be allowed to take that step, Mullins said.

"She probably has trouble deciding what shirt to wear to school," Mullins said. "The courts, the law has decided that she's not old enough, wise enough and mature enough to make her own decision about whether or not she wants to drink, to buy a pack of cigarettes to drive a car.

"But they have now put this decision, this responsibility, in her hands. This is a 12-year-old child who now has the responsibility of life and death and no matter how you feel about abortion, that's what it is, it's a decision about life or death."

The girl was impregnated by an adult relative who raped her repeatedly, the appeals court opinion says. The child and her siblings were placed in the custody of the Department of Human Resources because of allegations that the girl's mother was physically abusive, the opinion says.

The girl petitioned the juvenile court for a waiver to get an abortion without parental consent. The juvenile court heard testimony from the child and from a DHR caseworker. The court determined that the circumstances justified a waiver.

The Court of Civil Appeals, in a 15-page opinion written by Judge Scott Donaldson, upheld the juvenile court's decision.

Presiding Judge William Thompson and Judge Craig Sorrell Pittman concurred. Judge Terry Moore concurred in the result.

At the time of the juvenile court hearing, the girl was 12 and had been pregnant for 13 weeks. She had been living with her mother, stepfather, four siblings and an uncle. The court did not specify the relationship of the adult relative who raped the child.

The DHR caseworker testified that the adult relative who impregnated the girl had been charged with statutory rape. The caseworker testified there was a history of physical abuse and neglect by the girls' mother and that the children had been removed from her custody five times. The caseworker said the girl was shy but communicated at a normal level for a sixth-grader.

The girl, who had just completed fifth grade at the time of the trial, testified that she did not want to have the baby because she was scared. The girl told the court she did not want to involve her mother in the decision because they did not have a good relationship. The girl also testified that her mother believed the decision should be left to the girl. The girl testified that she did not know her father but believed he was living in a Central American country.

The appeals court opinion says that under the law, the juvenile court was required to grant the waiver if it determined that the girl was mature enough to make the decision or that the abortion would be in her best interest.

The district attorney who opposed the decision to grant the waiver argued that neither of those conditions were met.

But the appeals court, listing reasons why the waiver was justified, noted that the girl had been removed from her mother's custody five times because of reports of abuse or neglect, that she did not know the identity of her father, that she had no family support, and that the pregnancy was the result of statutory rape by an adult relative that happened while the girl was in her mother's custody.

Mullins acknowledged the girl's deplorable family circumstances but said an abortion will not solve her problems, but will compound them.

"She has been victimized her entire life," Mullins said. "And now she's being put in the position of being the perpetrator of this newest violence, because that's what's going to happen. Whether she grasps it now, there's a point in her life where she is going to understand what she has done and how it is going to impact. The depression, the substance abuse that happens so often, the problems with future relationships.

"I don't know what the perfect answer is, but I know this is not it. If I could actually speak to this child, the only thing I could say to her is you've been robbed of your childhood. Don't rob yourself of your future."

Johnson said he would like to see the Legislature change the law to allow district attorneys to more vigorously oppose waivers from the parental consent requirement.

Johnson said the law allows juvenile court judges to appoint lawyers to represent the unborn child, but that did not happen in this case.

Today's press conference was not the first time Johnson has taken a stand against a court ruling.

Two years ago, in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage, Johnson sent a letter to the legal adviser for then-Gov. Robert Bentley saying that, "Public officials are ministers of God assigned the duty of punishing the wicked and protecting the righteous."

Bentley had said he disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling but that the state would follow the law.

"When the law becomes merely the opinion of a handful of people on the courts, there is no longer any law," Johnson wrote in the letter, which he posted on Facebook. "There is tyranny. There is chaos. But there is no law."

Johnson later apologized for sending Bentley's legal adviser the letter and said he was reprimanded by his boss, Chief Justice Moore.

Abortion Ruling for 12-Year-old by Mike Cason on Scribd