By Peter J. Smith
ATLANTA, Georgia, June 13, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Georgia woman will now spend a year behind bars with the opportunity to contemplate the harm she did to a 16 year-old girl and her family by posing as the girl’s mother and forcing her into an abortion with the aid of an abetting abortion clinic.
Cindi Cook, 44, will spend a year in the DeKalb County prison, followed by a year of probation, for acting as an impostor and taking the victim, a minor, to the Northside Women’s Clinic. Posing as the girl’s mother, Cook paid for the abortion, because she didn’t want the girl to give birth to her son’s baby.
Cook forged a note saying that she was the victim’s mother, which the Northside Women’s clinic accepted as proof enough of parental consent. The clinic did not bother to validate Cook’s identity, but accepted the paper as a good enough permission slip for an abortion.
The victim’s family, which has requested to remain anonymous, said that Cook bullied their daughter into having the abortion without their knowledge and was assisted in this crime by the abortion clinic.
The victim’s parents, however, have difficulty believing how Cook could do so much harm, but only serve prison on a misdemeanor conviction. They can’t understand why the crime Cook committed is only a misdemeanor and believe the law ought to be changed to stiffen the penalty.
“It someone else does this they’re going to get punished for it. It’s not going to be a misdemeanor,” the girl’s mother told local WSB-TV Channel 2 on Thursday.
“She’s an awful person,” she continued. “It’s difficult to put into words what it has done to us.”
“I just point-blank asked her, ‘How could you have done this?’” the girl’s father also told WSB-TV.
De Kalb County Solicitor General Robert James told the Associated Press that Cook’s actions were “reprehensible conduct and it will not be tolerated.”
“It’s terrible when one parent takes another parent’s child to have an abortion,” said James.
James said he may file charges against the Northside Women’s Clinic for violating Georgia laws that require parental consent and informed consent to an abortion.
Under Georgia state law, unemancipated minors under the age of 18, who are not married and not in an emergency medical condition, must be accompanied by a parent or guardian at the time of the abortion. The requirement can be waived only if the clinic takes steps outlined in the law to verify that the girl’s parent or legal guardian has been informed.
However, Georgia law also requires that for a “voluntary and informed” abortion, a full 24 hour waiting period is mandated so that a woman seeking an abortion can have plenty of time to consider her decision. A woman must be informed in person or by telephone by the abortionist about the risks of abortion, and read the state’s literature on abortion, fetal pain, and alternatives to abortion, before having an abortion. The woman must also sign a letter saying she is freely consenting to the abortion without coercion.
According to the victim’s family, their daughter was afforded none of this, but instead was hastened into the abortion pre-arranged between Cook and the clinic.
The family is also considering a civil case against the abortion clinic, since they are concerned the clinic may be soliciting abortions from other underage girls.