After a Nebraska teenager in foster care attempted to receive an abortion, the state's supreme court ruled she was too immature to make such a decision, ABC News reported.
"It's a very unique case," said the teenager's lawyer, Catherine Mahern. "It's OK for her to relinquish her child for adoption. She doesn't need a court to determine the underlying psychological impact or emotional impact of giving up a child, which I think is significant."
In the recently published court opinion, the 16-year-old teenager was 10 weeks pregnant last May when she requested a court document allowing the abortion without parental consent. She claimed she was not financially stable enough to have a baby and could not "be the right mom that [she] would like to be right now."
In the same month, the court terminated her biological parents' parental rights due to abuse and neglect and make her a ward of the state. Her father was convicted of third-degree assault in 2011 after breaking her collar bone and shoulder blade and her mother had drug problems.
Earlier in February, she was placed in foster care. In the court documents, the girl claimed her foster parents, due to their religious beliefs, would not allow her to receive an abortion and feared their biological children would see her as a "bad person."
After the judge asked her if she fully understood what an abortion was, she said yes. He also asked her whether she "rather do that than to risk problems with the foster care people," and she said yes again.
However, the court ruled that since she had no work experience and was dependent on her foster parents that she was too immature to make the decision on her own.
Additionally, in order to receive approval from the court, the young woman had to prove the abuse she suffered from her actual parents. Since their parental rights were terminated by the time she asked for the court's permission, they did not grant her request.
