Teenager in Texas Says Mom Subjected Her to Forced Abortion, Buried Baby
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 11, 2008
Galena Park, TX (LifeNews.com) — A teenager in a Houston suburb says her mother forced her to have an abortion and then buried the body of the baby in the backyard. Police have investigated the case and may have discovered the baby’s body but won’t release further details about the evidence they collected.
The unidentified teenager says that, after her mother found out she was pregnant, she purchased some sort of pill and forced her daughter to take them.
The drugs, likely either the dangerous mifepristone abortion pill or misoprostol, which causes contractions and frequently induces birth, caused the teenager to give birth prematurely.
After giving birth to the baby in her home, the teen told police her mother took the baby and buried the child in the backyard of the family’s house. The girl did not know whether the baby was dead or alive at the time.
Police Chief Robert Pruett says officials used cadaver dogs to search the area where the mother claims she buried the baby.
"The mother swears up and down the baby is buried here," he told the Houston Chronicle newspaper. "We don’t know if she’s telling the truth or not."
Police went to the family’s home on Thursday and used cadaver dogs to search the area but will not disclose whether the body of the baby was found. Pruett would only say that the county medical examiner is looking into the evidence officials obtained.
He said the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office’s investigation would determine whether any charges will be filed in connection with the case.
The newspaper indicated the mother has contacted an unnamed attorney and that the attorney indicated the baby was small enough to fit in the girl’s hand.
Cases of parents forcing their daughters to have an abortion are not new.
Missouri Right to Life told LifeNews.com last month about a recent case of a forced abortion.
According to the group, a 16 year-old girl was the victim of an attempted coerced abortion by her mother and aunt. The three were at the Planned Parenthood abortion center when the teen apparently called police by dialing 911 on her cell phone.
"The police went into the facility and arrested the aunt. The mother then realized that it wasn’t so simple to force her will upon her daughter," the group said.
In Maine, a couple attempted to drive their teenage daughter to another state for a forced abortion, but she was able to escape and notify police.
In Georgia, a mother was arrested for making her daughter drink turpentine to cause an abortion.
In the Georgia case, 44 year-old Rozelletta B. Blackshire was charged with cruelty to a child and criminal abortion Columbus Police Sgt. Debra Bohannon indicated. The teenager’s cousins, 26 year-old Shonda Y. Blackshire of Columbus and 28 year-old Monica M. Johnson of Eufaula, Alabama, were also arrested and charged with attempting to cause a criminal abortion.
Dr. David Reardon of the Elliot Institute says these kinds of cases are a part of a widespread problem.
Reardon is the co-author of a recent Medical Science Monitor study of American and Russian women that found that 64 percent of American women who had abortions reported that they felt pressured to abort by others.
His organization, which monitors the effects of abortion on women, has also prepared special research previously showing cases of violence against women who refused to have abortions.
Reardon said that cases of women being pressured, threatened, or subjected to violence if they refuse to abort are not unusual.
"In many of the cases documented for our ‘Forced Abortion in America’ report, police and witnesses reported that acts of violence and murder took place after the woman refused to abort or because the attacker didn’t want the pregnancy," he said.
"Even if a woman isn’t physically threatened, she often faces intense pressure, abandonment, lack of support, or emotional blackmail if she doesn’t abort," Dr. Reardon explained. "While abortion is often described as a ‘choice,’ women who’ve been there tell a very different story."
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