By Erika Hernandez
02 Nov 2023, 19:33 PM EDT
Authorities reported that An Idaho woman and her son have been charged with kidnapping after the young man’s underage girlfriend was taken out of state to have an abortion.
Court documents show that the idaho police began investigating the woman and child earlier this summer after the mother of a 15-year-old girl told authorities that her daughter had been sexually assaulted and then taken to Oregon for an abortion.
With some limited technical exceptions, abortion is prohibited throughout pregnancy in Idaho. However, the procedure is legal in Oregon, leading many patients to cross the state border to receive services.
Since last year, Idaho law categorizes abortion as a felony and anyone who helps a minor leave the state to undergo such a procedure could face a prison sentence.
According to an affidavit obtained by CBS News, the minor’s mother believed her daughter was living with her father, but discovered that the teenager had been staying at her boyfriend’s house for several months in Pocatello, Idaho.
The girl told law enforcement officials that she began having consensual sexual relations with her boyfriend when he was 17 and she was 15. The relationship continued when he turned 18, just as she became pregnant.
Court documents indicated that the young woman was “happy” when she found out she was pregnant, but her boyfriend was not. The young man threatened her not to pay child support and said he would end their relationship.
Besides, The groom’s mother demanded that the girl not tell her parents and threatened to “throw her out of his house” if she did so.
The girl told authorities she then traveled to Bend, Oregon, about 550 miles from Pocatello, with her boyfriend and mother in May to have an abortion. Police later used data from the girl’s cell phone to confirm that the trio traveled back then.
The accused woman confessed to the police that she rented a car to go with her son and the young woman to Oregon to have an abortion “by mutual agreement.” He assured that he never forced the minor to terminate the pregnancy.
Since then, Prosecutors have charged the mother with second-degree kidnapping and the son with the same charge. The young man also faces one count of rape and three counts of producing child sexual exploitation material after authorities confirmed he captured sexually explicit videos and photographs of the girl.
The mother also faces multiple drug charges.
Prosecutors say the kidnapping charges were filed because the mother and son intended to “keep or hide” the girl from her parents by transporting “the young girl out of state for the purpose of obtaining an abortion.”
Keep reading:
- Mifepristone: what we should know about the abortion pill that was restricted in the US
- Mifepristone: how safe is the abortion pill that they threaten to withdraw in the US?
- Idaho governor signs law that penalizes those who help minors have abortions with jail time