(CNN) -- An anti-abortion legal organization in
Texas has won a restraining order against the parents of a 16-year-old
girl, saying that the couple is trying to coerce the teen into having an
abortion.
The Texas Center for Defense of Life argued that Roe v. Wade, the historic 1973 Supreme Court decision that guaranteed women the right to have an abortion, works both ways.
"Roe was about the right
to choose," center founder and attorney Stephen Casey told CNN on
Monday. "This young woman has the right to choose to have her child.
I've spoken to her on numerous occasions and she's very assertive."
Legal experts that CNN
spoke with stressed that no one can force anyone -- minor or not -- to
have an abortion. The legal action in this case is meant, the teen's
lawyer says, to stop the parents from trying to influence their
daughter.
She and the baby's father, also 16, plan to wed, the lawyer said. The legal age to marry in Texas is 16 with parental consent.
The parents have denied
all allegations and called the case baseless. Their attorney did not
respond to requests from CNN for comment.
The center, which is
active in Republican politics in Texas and nationwide, says it is
dedicated to "aggressively defending the sanctity of human life."
The lawyers were first
contacted by the boy's mother, who claimed that the girl's parents were
threatening the teenage girl face to face and via text message. The
woman also said the parents had threatened her son.
Casey says the center then contacted the girl a few weeks ago and interviewed her at length, offering its services for free.
On Monday, the center
will ask a Houston court for an injunction against the parents, which
will give a kind of lasting power to the restraining order. Casey
believes it will protect the teen throughout the duration of her
pregnancy.
The teenager still lives at home, however.
Casey explained that the
restraining order isn't to physically keep the parents away from their
daughter, but to "make sure that (the teen's) rights are secure."
"The order stops the parents from bullying," Casey said.
The restraining order
alleges that the teen's mother threatened to "slip (the teen) an
abortion pill," took her daughter's phone and car, and kept her home
from school to punish her for choosing not to abort her baby. The mother
told the teen that she was "making the biggest mistake of her life" by
choosing to have the child and that the mother had numerous
abortions, so her daughter should, too, the restraining order says.
Also according to the
order, the father told his daughter he was not going to provide health
insurance for her to have the baby and "was going to look into
canceling" the insurance. He allegedly texted his daughter that she
"needs an ass whoopin'," the document says.
The parents told their
daughter she could either "continue to live in misery" in their home or
she could "have the abortion and tell everyone it was a miscarriage,"
according to the restraining order.
In response to the
order's claims, the parents denied in court record all allegations and
asked to have the cost of retaining an attorney reimbursed.
CNN is not naming the
parents in the interest of protecting the girl's privacy. However, the
restraining order includes the parents' names.
"Under Texas procedure
when it's a case involving and alleging abuse of a minor, the minor's
identity should be protected, and the girl's attorneys might have
violated that," said Susan Hays, an attorney and legal adviser to Jane's Due Process, an Austin-based nonprofit organization that represents pregnant minors in the state.
Jane's Due Process, which supports the right to legal abortion, is not involved in this case.
"There's an
understanding that we will not make law on the back of a 16-year-old
girl, and that's what her attorneys are doing," said Hays. "I'm appalled
that they've done this to this girl. Putting the girl's parents' names
in court documents ... her attorneys have done a lousy job protecting
her confidentiality."
Hays said the lawyers could have used the parents' initials or included less detail about the family.
Casey responded to that
criticism by saying that child protective services were notified by the
courts about the abuse allegations.
He added that it's not
the goal of the Texas Center for Defense of Life to disrupt the girl's
family. He believes that legal action, in the end, serves to protect the
girl.
"We feel like when the
parents see their grandbaby, they'll say 'Oh!' and they'll have a change
of heart," Casey said. "They (parents) usually do that."
Casey views the restraining order as a way to "stop the bullying" by the parents and enable their client to do what she wants.
This isn't the first time the Texas Center for Defense of Life has filed a suit of this nature.
Last year the group represented a 14-year-old from Corpus Christi who
said her family wanted to force her to have an abortion. The girl
didn't want to abort her baby, Casey said, and her grandmother and
cousins were allegedly abusive to the teen. The lawyer in that case did
not disclose the girl's name and CNN's attempts to reach her family at
the time of the suit were not returned.
That case was settled,
Casey said, and a confidential agreement was reached. He would not
answer whether the girl had an abortion or not.
The Roe v. Wade decision works both ways, the Texas Center for Defense of Life argues.
