Houston, TX –Cherise Mosley was so desperate to have an abortion while still a minor that she tried to use a fake identification card at a Houston-area abortion business.
It worked.
Aaron Family Planning Clinic in Houston accepted the fake ID card that Mosley, then 17, bought at a grocery store and performed the abortion Aug. 1, 2000, according to a state lawsuit Mosley filed Wednesday.
Mosley and her lawyer, Jared Woodfill, said the woman now regrets not telling her family about the pregnancy, which she would have been asked to do if the abortion business had followed Texas' parental notification law. The Texas Family Code requires that minors get parental notification for abortions.
Woodfill said that had the parents known, they would have helped Mosley raise her child.
A staff member at the Aaron Family Planning Clinic, when contacted about the lawsuit Thursday, said, “We don't make comments on that” and hung up the telephone.
Woodfill said the case focuses on whether the abortion facility followed the law requiring valid government identification to confirm age.
“She had gone to the clinic right before, and they turned her away because she did not have identification,” he said.
The teenager then walked to a grocery and filled out a form for an identification card, falsely stating she was 18, Woodfill said. The store gave her the ID card, which is stamped, “This is not a government document,” Woodfill said.
Mosley returned to the abortion facility, and the staff accepted the card as valid identification, he said.
A pro-life group that lobbied for the notification law says the abortion facility is flagrantly abusing it.
“This is not only another example of the abortion industry's attempt to thwart the law in Texas, but also a slap in the face to what the Texas Legislature intended. The abortion industry is more interested in dollar signs and keeping parents in the dark than truly helping young girls and their families,” stated Joe Kral, legislative director for Texas Right to Life.
Now 18, Mosley has become pregnant a second time and has since given birth to a child, Woodfill said.
For the complete story, please see The Houston Chronicle.
(This article courtesy of Steven Ertelt and the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email infonet@prolifeinfo.org.)
