I'm not sure I think 16 yr old girls are mature enough for sex, much less making such a weighty decision on their own as to whether to have it or abort.

All these parents are acting unethically in my book. But I think its unfair to come down on the girls parents, much less the father. We never got the chance to see how they would've reacted. And judging their parenting on how their 16 yr old acted after the fact is not really fair.

Any girl that age will be scared no matter what. And to have the mother of the boy pushing her to act a certain way, given the natural fear she'd be in, its not hard to imagine an older person being able to manipulate this girls fear to protect her son.

For all we know, her parents would have been supportive. In that sense they are right. An older lady using her obvious advantages to manipulate a 16 yr old girl in a moment of fear is more than unethical- it should be illegal. And she should pay in some way.

What she should have done was have a sit down with her parents, talked with girl before hand to hear why she was scared of her parents and try to determine whether the girl would need protection of law enforcement/agencies when she did so. But she was only looking out for her son.

I get a feeling if it had been the boys father doing this we wouldn't be so forgiving, would we?

This doesn't seem to be a particularly striking case of "parental consent laws run amok." If Cook, as alleged, pressured a 16 year old into not talking to her parents about her pregnancy and abortion, that seems on the face of it morally wrong. It's a generally accepted principle that adults can exert undue influence on minors -- look at age-of-consent laws. I don't support parental notification laws, because I believe that even a minor has a right to bodily sovereignty. However, this is PRECISELY the type of story that people pushing these laws use because it resonates with people.

This woman should have been prosecuted. To try and place the responsibility for this to the 16 year old is simply unacceptable and beggars belief. This woman not only interfered with the ability of the parents to deal appropriately with the decision their daughter was faced with but committed a crime in the process. The authorities were completely justified in bringing charges here.

The fact that an abortion was performed here does not make this an issue of pro-choice vs. pro-life. You should consider removing your politcal blinders for a second and think like a parent. Whatever your feelings about abortion, for a woman to take it upon herself to play mother to another parent's child is obscene. Good Lord, I got mad at a neighbor once for feeding my child lunch with consulting me first!

Planned parenthood has documented a large number of abusive situations where young women suffered due to parental notification laws. As regrettable as these situations are, they are extreme, they are rare, and they provide no justification for the state or for a stranger to step in and weaken parental authority. I am both strongly pro-choice and strongly in favor of parental notification. I hope the lawsuit is as successful as the prosecution.

but I’m not sure it would be any less wrong then if girl’s mom twisted her arm into carrying to term.

16 might be young but by the time this girl was to have given birth she’d have almost been a legal adult. It seems crazy to me that her parents have such tight control over a decision that will impact her entire life so completely. I mean – we’re talking about her HS education and her collage plans too. And once that girl hit’s 18 those concerned parents could toss her and that baby out to fend for themselves. Not that they would – I’m just saying that at 16 it should be this young woman’s decision entirely.

For all we know, her parents would have been supportive.

I'm guessing if they are willing to sue the other parent and the clinic for "soliciting underage girls for abortions", these are not people who would have been supportive of an abortion. That mother probably knew the parents wouldn't let her have an abortion.

That said, the woman was wrong to forge the document and pretend she was the girl's mother. The charge that she also coerced the girl I find highly suspect. It sounds like something the girl's parents would have to say in order to win a lawsuit. I'm betting the girl was all too eager to have this woman sign the paper but isn't owning up to it now. There's undoubtedly more to this story.

Why is it that this woman had no problem proving to this clinic that she was the girls mother? It's ridiculous that it's required to show identification to buy cigarettes but they don't ask for it at an abortion clinic...news flash, you can commit fraud there too. They should learn something from this case and make it a law that if you are a parent signing a consent form for your child that you should have some form of ID.

This is a fault of the system. It was wrong for the women to do that, but this would have never had happened had they asked for proof of who she was...and continue to do this for any underage person and there parents.

Pure speculation on your part. Nothing your saying is based on fact. The facts that these parents are sueing this lady and the clinic shows nothing about how they would have acted in her behalf. And even if the would have acted in a way that YOU disagree with is besides the point. YOU don't get to tell other parents what they SHOULD decide for their kid.

It is they who will shoulder the burden of raising and housing her until term, it is they who know their daughter, know her circumstances and have her best interest at heart- yes even if you disagree with their assesment.

As another poster said, I am all for choice laws, but taking away and weakening a parents rights is no way to deal with people who are abusive.

Quite simply its just another way for people like you to coerce others to behave as YOU would have them behave and do. And getting the law to do it for you.

If it was my child I wouldn't blink in getting her an abortion, but I respect the right of the parents to come to their own solution along with their daughter. IT IS NONE OF MY BUSINESS.