Teri Rhodes- a teenage mother’s opinion

I got pregnant at 16.  I was terrified.  Terrified my parents would disown me, terrified that life as I had planned was over, terrified that the boy I had sex with would reject me.  None of that happened.  We did keep my pregnancy secret for as long as we could, but when I came clean, I recieved NOTHING but support.  I can understand Terri’s decision to hide her pregnancy.  But….that is where my understanding ENDS.  The coroner reports that the baby lived 10 minutes “outside the womb”.  In whatever manner, Teri killed her baby.  Be it by accident or with malice, Teri took her child’s life.  We aren’t talking about a first trimester abortion.  Full term, viable infant.  DEAD.  Stuffed in a garbage bag whilst Teri took a shower.  She deserves the harshest punishment our laws allow.  But the guilt that will eventually haunt her for the rest of her days should be the true punishment.  I hope that every time she hears a child cry, she remembers the child she murdered.  I hope that when she eventually gets out of prison, she makes the smart decision to not have any more children.  How can she trust herself?  No matter what was running thru her head that horrible day gives her the right to take her child’s life.  In this day and age there are HUNDREDS of groups that offer counseling, pre-natal care, adoption alternatives, abortion informtaion.  In our own city, the Women’s Care Center offers counseling, and adoption services as well as many other services to young mothers.  It comes down to this….Teri had a choice.  She CHOSE to murder her child.