10-year-old rape victim gives birth.

The most disgusting news story I've seen in awhile: a 10-year-old Idaho girl gives birth after being raped.

If you ever needed validation for keeping abortion legal, this is it. If you ever needed a reason to overturn parental consent laws regarding abortion or contraceptives, this is it. If you ever needed a reason to support comprehensive sex education in schools, which would teach young girls to seek immediate help in the event of rape, to seek emergency contraception and STD testing, this is it.

Obviously, details on this girl's story are protected because she is a minor, so I can't speak for the specifics of her story. But it's also telling that the reporter in the CNN video notes that this is actually more common than people might think.

Girls are reaching puberty at ever-younger ages; the reporter mentions the link between early puberty and childhood obesity, which is true, although there are other reasons. Another major reason is the overabundance of hormones given to dairy cows to increase milk production (which is why many vegetarians, vegans, environmentalists, and health conscious folks have switched to organic milk, limited dairy consumption, or outright eliminated it, as is the case with vegans).

But regardless of the age at which girls reach puberty, the main issue here is rape. At best, this girl will have a difficult childhood/motherhood - and so will her daughter. That is a BEST case scenario. It shouldn't be happening at all, but we, as a culture, need to wake up to reality and provide the educational and support resources that girls in this situation NEED.