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Pregnant Houston Teen Reaches Agreement with Parents to Keep Child, Avoid Forced Abortion

Posted byHoumanitarian

Brian Rogers, Houston Chronicle
A 16-year-old Hockley girl had to make a choice after finding out she was pregnant in January. She could either keep her baby or appease her parents.

The teen said her mother and father threatened her and were trying to coerce her into having an abortion, according to court records.

After weeks of tearful fighting, the girl took a dramatic step: She sued her parents.

“There were times when she was in tears,” the unborn child’s father told reporters Monday about the coercion and the decision to file a lawsuit. “It was hard on her and me.” He said the girl’s parents were threatening to “make her life miserable” until she got an abortion.

The recently filed lawsuit ended Monday with an agreement that the teen’s parents would not use physical force or psychological coercion. They also agreed to pay half of the hospital bill if the girl has not married when the baby is delivered and let her use her car to go to school and work.

“She wanted to have this child without coercion and she got that,” said Stephen Casey, one of the teen’s attorneys. “We’re glad that our client recognized that her unborn child had a right to live, and she wanted to protect that.”

Casey and other attorneys with the Texas Center for the Defense of Life represented the teenager. This is the fourth lawsuit the organization has filed in the state on behalf of teens who are being coerced to have abortions, said Gregory Terra, president of the group. In one other, the case ended with a similar agreed order. In the other two, the group lost its fight.

After Monday’s hearing, Jared Woodfill, an attorney appointed to protect the pregnant teen’s rights, said minors filing for emancipation, to be treated as legal adults, are much more common than lawsuits pitting child against parent.
(Read more of this story at Chron.com)

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