A pregnant Texas 16-year-old has gone to court to avoid having an abortion against her will, according to court documents.The parties are slinging allegations at each other.
Lawyers with the Texas Center for Defense of Life, a pro-life advocacy group, filed a petition on behalf of the teen plaintiff identified only by her initials in Harris County, Texas district court on Feb. 10. A judge granted a temporary restraining order in the case. . .
On a different occasion, the pregnant teen claims her dad told her "he was going to take her to have an abortion and that the decision was his, end of story."Having been an obstreperous teen myself, I can imagine the brouhahas.
The girl claims her parents already removed her phone, kept her from school and took her car as punishment for failing to get an abortion.
We spoke to the teen's father who claims the allegations are false. He says he believes someone is putting his daughter up to this lawsuit and had no further comment about the case.
And maybe another party (Fetus Fetishists R Us?) is encouraging the kid to take these steps.
But in similar ugly stories I've read, parents have claimed that the young woman is mentally or physically challenged or incapable and thus unfit for parenting. No such allegations here.
Here's the thing. Just as no one should be able to force someone to continue an unwanted pregnancy, no one should be able to force someone to terminate a wanted one.
Then there are practicalities. No ethical abortion provider would do it against the teen's will.
And the law is pretty clear too. Not only would a forced abortion constitute assault, Texas has a fetal homicide law.
This one seems to be a slam-dunk and BONUS! The young woman has a whole (perhaps lucrative) career open to her. She could become the Fetus Fetishist Poster Girl for Choice.
In short, we haven't heard the end of this.
9 comments:
"She could become the Fetus Fetishist Poster Girl for Choice."
Depends. Am I only the one who read this story and thought "her parents are probably church members"? Somehow it wouldn't surprise me if they were.
Because if they're not, she also has a shining career ahead of her as the poster girl for pro-life: "my atheist parents tried to kill my baby and I stopped them."
Anyway, another news report quotes the allegations as stating several additional instances of threats against her and says she has already had four abortions. Poor girl. It's got to be an awful enough situation already for her. I can't imagine she was hoping to become the centrepiece of a national scandal. On the bright side, it does sound like a slam-dunk case, as you say.
http://houston.cbslocal.com/2013/02/13/teenage-girl-suing-parents-because-they-are-trying-to-force-her-to-get-abortion/
Sorry, I wasn't clear in my snark.
Yes, she would be 'pro-life' poster girl, but they'll style it as 'What about HER choice, pro-aborts?'
Another one of their clever attempted gotchas.
Four abortions? Poor girl needs some sex ed stat!
Here's Sixth's link.
I read it as the girl's mother had four abortions.
I've now read three or four accounts of this and they do not line up. In one, the girl is living with her grandparents. In Sixth's, she's living with the fetus-father.
Ah, I see what you meant. Sorry. We're on the same page then.
Either there have been contradictory legal filings, some of the media are relying on unreliable anonymous sources (a common media practice), or the reporters haven't bothered with more than a cursory skim of the documents and have therefore produced error-ridden reports (an even more common media practice).
Another weird thing: in your link the parents are named. The girl is referred to by initials, funnily enough the last one of which is the same letter that begins the parents' last name. Isn't that a hideous breach of privacy?
I'm smelling something off here.
Sixth is right. Cursory skim of documents.
Seems not to be a hoax at least.
I don't know how Texan law works. It's possible that only minors are unnamed, and not adults who are connected to minors, although if so it seems like a fairly obvious flaw in the anonymity procedures.
What a bizarre and convoluted case. And what are Joint Managing Conservators? Are REK's parents divorced?
Referring to the boyfriend's parents as "paternal grandparents" seems a bit odd given that there is no birth yet. Jeffrey and Denise seem like quite the pair based on the court documents, e.g., taking the boyfriend's parents out to a bar to discuss how Denise would just sneak in an RU486 or equivalent into REK's drink. Let's hope they aren't painted a the poster parents of atheism.
Post a Comment