Print this case study here: Case Study – Abortion Rights and-or Wrongs

Case Study: Abortion Rights and/or Wrongs

By Tarris Rosell, PhD, DMin

Kate is a 17 year old patient, unmarried and 8 weeks pregnant. She is a rather remarkable girl in that she lives independently while still a senior in a high school. She tells you that she was an adoptee given back to foster care, and then abused in that system. She is now an emancipated minor who works 30 hours per week at a service industry job while also earning a 4.0 GPA in school, ranking in the top 10% of her class. She is college-bound, with a full-ride scholarship for pre-med undergraduate studies at a prestigious university.

Kate has absolutely no family support, and the former boyfriend who is the father of her unborn child/fetus simply disappeared upon learning of the pregnancy. Your patient is scared, uninsured, and says she doesn’t want to be pregnant or a mom (“Perhaps someday, but not now!”). She rejects the adoption option, based on her own experience growing up, and requests abortion only, at this hospital where she has always received medical care.”

Questions for discussion

1. Your faith-based health care system rejects elective abortion option. What ought to be done for Kate? And by whom?