Jail? community service maybe, but a year in jail? That is ridiculous. Guess a 16 year old isn’t of legal age in Georgia, so the way to discourage it is for the child to have to get permission. Lots of children have been born because the parents force a child to deliver the child. Babies having babies. If she is old enough to get pregnant, she should be old enough to have it terminated, without permission, especially if she is 16. It’s the south…I could have been married in Alabama without parental permission, at 16 (but I was 19 when I married) but my now husband was 19 and he had to be 21 to get married without permission. His parents had to give permission for him to marry me!! Wonder if that has changed? And no, I wasn’t pregnant…and abortion was not legal in those days. Fortunately times have changed.

No good deed goes unpunished they say. It was a good deed if the girl’s parents would have denied her the abortion. She’s too young to be bearing children. And yes, she’s too young to be having sex but she should not be punished by being forced to carry a child. If the son is 16 he’s also too young to be having sex and what punishment does he get?
And I agree it’s too long a sentence.
“It’s terrible when one parent takes another parent’s child to have an abortion”
Would the solicitor general have said the same thing if she’d taken the girl for a tonsillectomy? Same principle.

It breaks my heart that people are rushing to defend this woman’s actions.

“It breaks my heart that people are rushing to defend this woman’s actions”. NateW.
I’m sure it does.
What the Mom did was illegal, but not wrong…The girl was probably afraid to tell her parents. Many girls have self -aborted or carried to term, and killed their baby after giving birth in bathrooms or whatever, because they are scared of their parents reactions. That is better than having a safe abortion? And as nnmns said…what about the sperm donor, the son. Nothing.
Yes, The Mom should be punished for saying she was the girl’s parent…and apparently she didn’t have to prove that to the clinic…but going to jail for a year is over the top. She is no threat to the public.

“She is no threat to the public.”
Assuming her son doesn’t impregnate somebody else, that is.
I simply cannot understand why the right to an abortion is so all-powerful, sacred, unquestionable and holy that it overrides common sense. I don’t know about any of you, but if I found out that, for example, another parent had forged my name so my teenaged daughter could get her ears pierced or have a tattoo, I’d be pissed to hell.
Saying it is okay for children to get an abortion without parental permission is essentially saying parents do not have the right to decide what values and morals to raise their children with. But more basic than that, it’s saying that parents do not have a right to a decision about their children’s health. This arrogant woman decided she knew what was best for another person’s child, and felt it okay to have machines and surgical tools stuck in her body without her family knowing. I mean, come on, am I the only one who can see how terrifying this is?
God bless.

This seems to be another incident of incomplete journalism. There has to be more to this story – there are too many holes and too many dangling threads.

Pagansister,
The girl may very well have been afraid to tell her parents, which is natural and understandable, but that surely shouldn’t give another parent the right–legal or moral–to step in and override the right of the parents to be involved in the ethical and healthcare decisions of their teenage daughter. I personally know two young girls who faced unplanned pregnancies and were afraid of their parents, one of them my own sister. In both cases the parents responded with disappointment but also with love and compassion and played an active role in ensuring that the girls’ needs have been met during and after pregnancy; I suspect that such would be the case in most similar situations, and other parents shouldn’t interfere just to spare the girl of the responsibility of facing her fears.
We don’t know all the details of the story, of course. Perhaps the girl had reason to believe her parents would become abusive or something, in which case the other woman was genuinely doing something she thought good. Perhaps, though, the boyfriend’s mother was just looking for a quick way to get her son out of facing his responsibilities and encouraged the girl to have the abortion. We don’t really know, but I find it disturbing that people would rush to defend the woman’s actions as not being wrong. Like Joey said, it’s as if abortion is so sacred that anybody anywhere helping someone else get an abortion is automatically some kind of saint or martyr.

Here are two paragraphs from the ABC News story:
“Cook learned that her son’s 16-year-old girlfriend was pregnant when she read a text message on his cell phone. The woman began contacting the teen, urging her not to tell her parents and offering to pay for the abortion and arrange for the procedure,…”
“It was very clear from the testimony at the trial that the girl was coerced and very much strong-armed into getting this abortion that she opposed, that her parents opposed and that at one point, the boy opposed,” Little told ABC News. Cook’s motivation, he said, was a fear that having a child might jeopardize her son’s college plans.”
I am pro-choice and firmly believe that abortions should be safe, legal, and affordable. No woman should be coerced into having an abortion or carrying a pregnancy to term. I think the mother probably got what she deserved.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/Story?id=5045223&page=1

It does appear Cook was overstepping her bounds there. I didn’t argue she shouldn’t be punished and possibly the punishment is appropriate given the additional information. Had she been protecting the girl against an abusive parent it would not have been appropriate. We don’t know.

Knowing what’s been posted here about the story, I have to agree with “Anon’s” post of Posted by: | June 13, 2008 12:16 AM
Abortion should be safe, available, and legal, but never, ever, ever coerced.
When I was in college, my friend’s sister had an abortion and did not tell her parents. Her parents found meds in her purse (I don’t know if it was labeled) and asked her what it was. She told them that her girlfriend had an abortion and was afraid to tell her parents, so she was holding the meds for the friend. Her parents said to her that they felt so bad for her friend and hoped that should something like that happen to her, that she would feel she could come to them. I don’t think she ever fessed up, but it’s an unimaginably hard place for a teenage girl to be, especially if the home life is not so loving.

According to the text from the ABC news story, the mom was clearly wrong on every level. I undersatnd a mother wanting to protect her child, but this was stepping well over the line. I do not think jail time is the appropriate sentence. I expect she ought to spend time with Planned Parenhood or other such organizations. This mom was selfish for her son, which seems to indicate she has some other issues that also need some attention.
HOWEVER, this does not justify the making abortion illegal. Many young women have been forced to bear and raise their children. Intentional, responsible choice is as basic as a right can get. It is appropriate for the court to step in when that choice is abused (though, imagine what would happen if every young woman who was compelled to bear and raise their unplanned – unwanted – child brought those who forced their decision to court!)

The Atlanta Constitution Journal.com news said the mother of the young man didn’t want his college years stopped because of an unplanned pregnancy with his girlfriend. While I can understand her feeling this way it in no way gave her the right to do what she did. If they didn’t give her jail time for falsifying she was the girls mother, she may have set a precedent for more falsifying by others in other same, same predicaments.

I would Ammend my sentence. Al lthree parties should sdpend time working with Planned Parenthood or other siilar organizations. All the son would have learned otherwise is that he can escape anything as long as Mom is willing to cover for him (BAD idea). The young woman would learn that she should submit without questions and act without choosing for herself. (also BAD idea). He could get involved in learning to counsel other potential dads-to-be-or-not-be. She could learn simply from being in a support group. The Mom has so many lessns to learn that I expect she may need many months to sort out better solutions.

Given additional info.,I will concede the Mom did overstep her bounds…if indeed the girl was coerced, that was wrong…and perhaps the clinic should have asked for proof of parenthood by the Mom. However, jail time isn’t helpful…community service…might help …lots of hours of it.
However, this shouldn’t be used as an argument against allowing safe, legal abortions, and I still think a 16 year old should be able to get an abortion IF she feels her (real) parents would not accept the situation. Under 16…that’s tricky.
But the abortion is done, and perhaps, but not necessarily, it might make both the boy and girl think twice about having sex without protection, or at all. Can hope.

coerced or not the baby’s fate is the same it’s dead, there is no positive lesson from this.
Lesson 1 The value of life
Lesson 2 when having meaningless sex be a little more careful
Lesson 3 weoo that was a close one

Somehow, cknuck, I don’t think the “value of life” has been taught to the 2 children yet (though it wasn’t a baby yet). However being a lot more careful when having sex certainly should be a lesson learned (always have a condom ready) and I totally think they have had the “weoo that was a close one” sensation.

We can conjecture all we want, but this young couple are unique, and not like anyone else ever. Since this unplanned moment of passion happened most likely they were never counseled by their parents on sexual matters. The young lady must have been if Planned Parenthood was involved, I don’t know what they do in GA. She at least must now understand more about her body and a mans body and a fetus’s development then she knew before. If she does this again she’s not too intelligent. The about to go to college boy should be made to take classes on how to conduct himself. In fact, if all middle school children had this and then in H.S. another review, it would cut down if not all unwanted pregnancies. Just say NO doesn’t work for most teens today.

Just say no doesn’t work with teens today because it doesn’t work with adults these days and values are out the window, like the value of life for instant. It is a baby the moment the heart starts to beat anything else is just cold blooded and selfish.

“It is a baby the moment the heart starts to beat anything else is just cold blooded and selfish” cknuck
That would be your opionion, fortunately not everyones…or there would be a lot more unwanted and mistreated children born.

When does the heart become a heart? At what point of time in fetus development? Do you know pagansister? I’ll have to get my medical book out and see if tells this, otherwise I’ll have to wait a whole yr. before I see my Gyn again. When does a brain fully develop? When does a soul enter the fetus? Until we know this definitively it should be up to the woman carrying this possible spark of life.

Hentrietta; I just Googled the question, on one site only,and it said the heart is in week 4. It is the first functioning organ.
Obviously at that stage, there it can’t live outside the womb or for many months after that.
It is IMO, still up to the woman to decide. Personally I think a woman should be able to decide before 4 months….after that…she should just finish the pregnancy. But again, under some circumstances, that may not be possible. There are so many circumstances that pop up, trying to talk about all of them would be impossible.

Thanks for looking it up ps. Interesting that the heart develops so early, probably not entirely though. Now I’ll have to look it up, too.

Because a baby can’t live outside of the womb shouldn’t determine weather a child should live, its depending on the one who gave it life to let it live.