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‘This is what I have to do,’ says teenager who visited Women’s Med Center for abortion consult

KETTERING — A 16-year-old who was in the Women’s Med Center on Friday when the U.S. Supreme Court released its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and allow states to ban abortions said her decision is she has to make.

“It was kind of overwhelming and I was just like this is what I have to do,” the pregnant teen told News Center 7′s Molly Koweek.

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News Center 7 is not identifying the teenager by name.

When the high court’s decision was announced and the news of it spread across the nation, Koweek said the young woman’s mother reported that pro-life supporters shouted at her daughter every time she returned to their vehicle to grab extra paperwork.

“I am here for a consultation to get an abortion,” the teenage told Koweek, relating that she is about five weeks along.

“I just know that I’m not like mentally like enough to put forward into a child and there’s, there’s just a lot of thought that I put into it and I just feel like it would be best,” she said.

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Her decision is one her mother supports.

“I just wanted to make sure that this experience was not traumatizing for her,” the mother said. “It’s a medical procedure for a medical need, in my opinion.”

The people who gathered outside the clinic in Kettering, the last abortion provider in the Dayton area, said they feel the teenager and others who have abortions are wrong.

“It’s not their body,” said one, Kettering resident Mary Ann Berning. “It’s not their body. I mean there’s a baby inside of their body. So I think that is, it’s faulty thinking.”

Vivian Skovgard, another Kettering resident and pro-life supporter, said, “What I would say to them is I just pray that you can see that you are a mother and that you have a little baby.”

And while the people gathered outside the clinic applaud the Supreme Court decision, the teenager and her mother said they are concerned for the future.

“It scares me, because I hope that we wouldn’t ever have to do this again, but what happens if we can’t?” the mother asked. “And we know historically what happened in this country when this wasn’t an option.”

Her daughter offered her perspective.

“Your decision is yours and like you shouldn’t be judged for your decision and if you don’t think that you should have a baby and you end up being pregnant, I feel like that is your choice and it should be your choice. It’s a scary world,” she said.



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