Florida Teen Saved From Forced Abortion in Nick of Time

A 17-year-old Florida girl was saved from being forced by her family to travel to Chicago for an abortion by last-minute interventions from her boyfriend and Liberty Counsel.

Letter of the Law

Late on a Friday afternoon in November, the boyfriend contacted Liberty Counsel with an urgent request. His girlfriend’s family was planning to force her the following Monday to fly from Florida, where most abortions are banned, to Chicago, where they are legal, to kill her unborn child. Neither the girl nor her boyfriend desired to abort the baby.

As an unabashedly pro-life organization, Liberty Counsel swung into action, contacting the Florida attorney general’s office and firing off a five-page letter to the girl’s parents demanding they abort their feticidal plans. (In a press release and the redacted letter, Liberty Counsel referred to the offenders as “family members,” but a reference to the members’ being the girl’s “parents” and the baby’s being their “grandchild” remained.)

The letter further ordered the parents to “cease and desist from engaging in any threats, emotional abuse, coercion, or any other form of manipulation or physical abuse to coerce [their daughter] into traveling out of Florida to receive an abortion.” The letter went on to allege several types of abuse including home confinement with no means of communicating with the outside world (though apparently she got a message to her boyfriend), threats to “kick her out of the house” if she failed to get an abortion, and “emotional abuse” such as “sarcastic statements about her soon-to-be-dead baby.”

Family Planning Aborted

According to the letter, the girl said she did not want to get an abortion because her “Christian religious beliefs” prohibited it. It’s worth noting, however, that those same beliefs did not prevent her from becoming pregnant out of wedlock in the first place.

Still, whatever her motivations, the girl had every right under both state and federal law to choose to bear her child, Liberty Counsel pointed out in its letter. “Under the general laws of the states, minors have the capacity and legal right to consent to all medical care related to the pregnancy,” the group wrote. Furthermore, “it is illegal in every state for you (or anyone) to force, coerce, or unduly pressure [the girl] into having an abortion.” Doing so would make them liable to criminal prosecution under state laws banning fetal homicide and potentially under the federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act. They could also “be held liable for various civil torts, such as medical battery, negligence, wrongful death, intentional infliction of emotional distress, or other claims.”

Faced with these threats, the parents canceled their plans and provided evidence of having done so to Liberty Counsel.

Months later, their daughter gave birth to a healthy, eight-pound baby girl.

Abortion-coercion Extortion

The evidence the parents gave Liberty Counsel revealed an even darker side to the situation. Their daughter’s unwanted abortion tourism — airline tickets, hotel rooms, transportation to the abortion clinic, and the deadly procedure itself — was being financed by the Chicago Abortion Fund (CAF). The CAF, whose purpose is to ensure that as many abortions take place as possible, describes itself as “the largest abortion fund in the country.” A not-insignificant portion of that funding comes from Illinois taxpayers; Cook County alone handed the CAF a cool $2 million last year. And with the Prairie State’s being the leading abortion-tourism destination in the country, the CAF is busier than ever.

According to Liberty Counsel:

Research shows that abortion funding organizations like CAF and abortion facilities enable coerced abortions. A 2023 study published in the Cureus Journal of Medical Science, which surveyed 1000 women who had abortions, found that 24 percent of the women reported that their abortions were coerced, unwanted, and inconsistent with their values. As for Liberty Counsel’s teen client, CAF’s partner Florida abortion clinic still pushed and attempted to manipulate her into an abortion even after she informed the staff she was being coerced against her will. The Florida clinic tried to hide from her the ultrasound pictures by putting them in an envelope to be thrown away and noted, “If you see it, you’re going to want to keep it.” Yet, Florida law requires that pregnant women be afforded the opportunity to see ultrasound photos and video. The clinic forged ahead engaging its “partners,” the CAF and a facility in Chicago, to arrange and pay for the abortion travel and logistics even though the pregnant teen told the clinic she was being coerced by a family member and didn’t want an abortion.

Happy Ending Is Just the Beginning

Fortunately, the girl’s — and her boyfriend’s — strong pro-life convictions, aided by a Christian nonprofit, carried the day.

Their troubles aren’t over, of course. Unwed teen parents, particularly in a situation in which one set of grandparents wanted their grandchild snuffed out in the womb, face some serious headwinds. But they won’t have to face them alone. In its cease-and-desist letter, Liberty Counsel promised to put the girl and her family in contact with other organizations that could assist them if the girl’s parents complied with its requests.

“Right before the July 4, 2026, weekend, Liberty Counsel’s teen client gave birth to her beautiful daughter,” said Liberty Counsel founder and chairman Mat Staver. “We celebrate this baby girl who has the unalienable right to life, and we commend this baby’s young parents who courageously chose life amidst intense pressure to kill the unborn baby.”