With the help of pro-life attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund, a 16-year-old Texas girl has secured a temporary restraining order preventing her parents from forcing her to have an abortion.
On two occasions, the teenager’s mother literally dragged her to local abortion facilities, including International Healthcare Solutions and Planned Parenthood of the Texas Capital Region, demanding that her daughter take the live of her unborn child.
Though she refused and the child’s father also does not want the baby killed, her parents continued to insist that they will force her to have the abortion. The court’s order prevents that from happening.
“No one should be allowed to decide that an innocent life–especially one that belongs to someone else–is worthless,” says Stephen Casey of Round Rock, one of the allied attorneys ADF works with in Texas.
He told LifeNews.com in a statement, “The right not to have an abortion is protected by law, and this right isn’t relinquished just because someone else considers the child to be an unwanted burden.”
The 16-year-old high school student, who is 13 weeks pregnant, was even more confirmed in her decision against having an abortion after receiving information from a pro-life prayer worker outside one of the abortion facilities to which her mother took her.
Casey and another ADF-allied attorney, Gregory R. Terra of Georgetown, filed the motion for the restraining order together with Allan E. Parker of The Justice Foundation in San Antonio.
The Justice Foundation’s Center Against Forced Abortion and the two ADF-allied attorneys working with the Texas Alliance for Life and the Austin Coalition for Life coordinated efforts on the girl’s behalf to file a motion for a temporary restraining order on Sunday. The court granted it Monday. She is still living with her parents.
ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman also weighed in on the case.
“This situation illustrates what a difference it can make when a woman is more fully informed about the true nature of abortion,” he said. “We intend to fully support this young woman in her desire to allow her child to live.” [related]
The motion for the temporary restraining order was filed by ADF-allied attorneys in the District Court of Travis County. A hearing in the case is scheduled for October 28 to consider a motion to convert the temporary restraining order into a temporary injunction.
