Court Allows Pregnant 17-Year-Old to Marry; Mom Says Judge ‘Stole My Daughter’
An Ohio judge has allowed a pregnant 17-year-old girl to marry against the wishes of her parents because the youth said she feared they would force her to have an abortion.
Judge Alan Acker of Franklin County probate court waived the state requirements for counseling and parental consent and allowed Gabrielle Squeglia to marry her 17-year-old boyfriend, Dustin Mitchell Goldman, the Columbus Dispatch reports. Acker then married the couple. Squeglia’s parents weren’t present at the hearing.
The ruling effectively emancipates Squeglia, the story says. The girl’s mother, Elizabeth “Lisa” Squeglia, told the newspaper she didn’t discover her daughter had married until she went to high school to pick her up and she wasn’t waiting in the usual place. Lisa Squeglia denied that she had pushed her daughter for an abortion.
“The judge stole my daughter,” Lisa Squeglia told the Dispatch. “I’m outraged. I can’t even mother her. I can’t say ‘goodnight’ to her. I can’t hold her. I can’t hug her. I can’t give her any advice.”
