Pregnant Teen Sues Her Parents to Avoid an Abortion

This happened in Texas, here's the information from Time magazine:

Earlier this month, Jaime Burnside called an attorney in Texas to help her teen-age son. His girlfriend was pregnant and wanted to have the baby, but her parents wanted her to have an abortion.

It’s the kind of case that invigorates the Texas Center for Defense of Life, which has handled three similar situations in the two years since it was founded. “Parents think they’re making a decision for their daughters like pulling a tooth or getting their tonsils out,” says Stephen Casey, who spoke to the boy’s mother and agreed to file suit against the girl’s parents. “But now that the girl is pregnant, the parents become grandparents and they can’t make a decision for the girl about her unborn child.”

A judge in Houston agreed. Last week, the parents of the 16-year-old girl — identified as R.E.K. in the lawsuit — said they would comply with an injunction that prohibits them from forcing their daughter to end her pregnancy. According to the lawsuit, the divorced parents also agreed to let the girl continue to use her cell phone and drive her car, both of which apparently had been confiscated after she announced that she was pregnant.

What do you think, should parents have the right to decide for their teens in such situations?

Tricky decision bearing in mind the parents will likely end up looking after the baby while the "child" mother continues her education.  I certainly don't think they should force her to do it.  Maybe talk to her and tell her the pros and cons and then let her make the decision and take responsibility for her deciision.

Sad and tough decisions and too bad the lawyers have to get involved.  The time to make decisions for the daughter has obviously passed.  Perhaps they should have taken more time when she was younger to help prepare her for the adult situations in which she now finds herself.  Good for the boy's parents. 

And when the grandchild grows up and finds the news article, how will he/she feel about the grandparent's having wanted mom to have an abortion? 

Sad and tough.  Like so many things in life.  Best wishes to the new parents and soon to be born child.

That's a really tough position. I just hope that the parents will accept the grandchild, I couldn't imagine anything different to happen. Maybe if they haven't spent much time together, they could become a real family now.