Texas Teen Sues Parents over Abortion Fight
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Hemera/Thinkstock(HOUSTON) — A pregnant 16-year-old Texas girl is suing her parents, claiming that her parents are attempting to force her to have an abortion.
The Texas Center for Defense of Life filed a lawsuit on the teen’s behalf arguing that her parents “are violating her federal constitutional rights to carry her child to term by coercing her to have an abortion with both verbal and physical threats and harassment.”
The teen, identified in the lawsuit only as R.E.K. since she is a minor, was “beside herself” when she called the center for help, her lawyer Stephen Casey told ABC News. The group claims it has previously represented teens in similar situations and won their cases.
“These girls are in a bind, particularly in a situation where their parents are forcing them to do something they don’t want to do,” Casey said. “Regardless of the [situation], that’s her parents and she should expect support from them in this situation, not resentment and anger.”
When the pregnancy was confirmed, the teenager’s father allegedly “became extremely angry, was insistent that R.E.K. was not having the baby, and that the decision was not up to her, according to the lawsuit. He stated he was going to take her to have an abortion and that the decision was his, end of story.”
The teen claims that her parents have taken away her phone, pulled her out of school, forced her to get two jobs and taken away her car in an effort to “make her miserable so that she would give in to the coercion and have the abortion,” the lawsuit said.
Casey said there is evidence of threats, including text messages from the girl’s father. The lawsuit also claims the girl’s mother suggested slipping her an “abortion pill.”
The nine-week pregnant teen said that she and the baby’s father wish to have the child and parent it.
The lawsuit is asking that the court declare that the teen has a right, under federal constitutional law, to make her own decisions about the baby. It also asks for a temporary restraining order from the parents.
The parents did not respond to request for comment from ABC News, but the teen’s father told ABC News’ Houston affiliate KTRK that the allegations are false. He told KTRK he thinks someone put his daughter up to the lawsuit.
The parents, who have different addresses, have 20 days to file a response.
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