A pregnant Texas teen who was suing her parents - claiming they were forcing her to have an abortion - has won the fight to keep her child, according to court documents, CNN reported.
A judge granted the 16-year-old girl's lawyers a long-term injunction against her parents. With the girl 10 weeks pregnant, the injunction will last the remainder of her term, and will allow the girl to use her car for work, school and medical appointments, according to court documents, ABC News reported. The girl had been kept home from school since she refused to have an abortion and had been forced to get two jobs, her lawyers said.
"This is a tremendous victory and another life has been saved," said Greg Terra, the girl's lawyer and president of the Texas Center for Defense of Life, a pro-life advocacy group. "Our victory today stands for the principle that 'choice' goes both ways. Under Roe v. Wade and post-Roe cases, a teenage girl has the absolute legal right to choose life, even over the strong objections, pressure, and punishments of her parents."
"We are very proud of our teenage client for being strong enough to stand against her parents to save her unborn child's life," he added.
Under the injunction, unless the teen marries the unborn baby's 16-year-old father, the teen's parents will be responsible for paying half of the hospital bill when she gives birth.
Stephen Casey, chief counsel with the Texas Center for Defense of Life, said the girl plans to marry her boyfriend, who is also the child's father, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The teen, who remains nameless because she's a minor, had the lawsuit filed on her behalf Feb. 10 by the Texas pro-life nonprofit. The girl had already been granted a temporary restraining order against her father while she was pregnant, according to the New York Daily News.
When the young woman told her parents she was pregnant, Denise Koen insisted she end the pregnancy, the lawsuit alleged. The teen's father told her that the "only option was for her to have an abortion," the petition said.
The teen's mother "invited the paternal grandparents to a bar for further discussion, where she suggested that she might slip R.E.K. (the pregnant minor) an abortion pill through deception," according to the lawsuit, the Daily News reported.
The unnamed woman has lived with her paternal grandparents for the last seven months. The teen's grandparents have agreed to help her care for the child when it arrives, the lawsuit claimed.
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