Three Charged After Aunt Allegedly Forced Teen to Drink Turpentine to Abort Baby

Three people in West Virginia have been charged in the case of a sexually abused teen whose aunt allegedly forced her to drink turpentine in an attempt to abort her unborn baby.

The 15-year-old girl was hospitalized and is now in the care of the state says a state police criminal complaint, reported by the Associated Press.

The complaint states the girl was living with her mother and Daniel Atwell, 24, whom the mother reportedly gave permission to have sex with her minor daughter.

When the girl became pregnant, the mother reportedly gave her daughter a morning-after abortion pill, but the drug did not terminate the pregnancy.

The girl said her aunt, Sherry Kirk, then forced her to drink turpentine to attempt an abortion.

According to AP, both Atwell and the girl’s mother have been charged with sexual assault, while Kirk was charged with attempt to kill or injure by poison.

All three adults are out on bail until the trial.

In 2011, pro-life media LifeNews reported that data from the Elliot Institute found 64 percent of women who have abortions claim they were pressured by other people, frequently their partners, into the abortion.

In 2016, the Washington Post reported the family of a pregnant woman in North Carolina claimed she was murdered by her boyfriend because she refused to have an abortion.

According to that report, Candace Pickens, 23, mother of her then-three-year-old son, was in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend, Nathaniel Elijah Dixon.

After becoming pregnant with Dixon’s child, her family said she was being pressured by Dixon to have an abortion, and that, when she refused, he murdered her.

Pickens’ body was found in a park in Asheville with her toddler son, critically wounded, beside her. Police described her murder as an “execution” because she had been shot in the head at point-blank range.

As WLOS News13 reported, Dixon – who had a violent criminal history – was arrested and charged with Pickens’ murder and with critically injuring her young son.

Last month, Dixon was sentenced to life in prison with no parole for Pickens’ murder, Fox Carolina reported. A jury found him not guilty of murder of an unborn child.