Woman pretended to be mom of girl who got abortion, say officials


By CHANDLER BROWN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 06/11/08

A Hall County woman is serving a year in jail for pretending to be a girl's mother when she signed off on the girl's abortion.

In reality, Cindi Cook was the mother of the girl's boyfriend, who also was 16 when she became pregnant in early 2007.

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Displeased that the baby would ruin her son's chance of going to college, Cook, 44, pressured the 16-year-old girl to have the abortion in the spring of 2007, found a clinic that would do it without her present, and paid for the procedure, DeKalb Solicitor General Robert James said Wednesday.

Last week, a judge sentenced Cook to a year in jail the maximum for a misdemeanor for interfering with custody and violating a parental notification law.

"This conduct is reprehensible," James said. "There's not a parent anywhere who'd be OK with what she did."

James said his office is now investigating whether the facility Northside Women's Clinic in Chamblee broke a state law that required parental notification when a girl under the age of 18 has an abortion.

According to its Web site, Northside Women's Clinic offers abortions through the 15th week of pregnancy, usually in about 10 minutes.

A woman who answered the phone Thursday morning said the clinic had no comment and did not have an attorney. She would not give her name or title.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is not identifying the girl because she is a minor.

More than a year after the abortion, "she's still struggling with the loss of the baby," said Fenn Little, her family's attorney. "She's getting better, but there's going to be a lot of counseling and issues that have to be addressed."

Through their attorney, the girl's parents issued this statement: "The actions of both Cindi Cook and the Northside Women's Clinic have affected our daughter's life with much pain this past year because of the loss of her baby. It was a sense of helplessness. As for us, they took away our right to be there and help our daughter during a time when she needed us most. The outcome of the trial is a positive step forward in the long healing process that we must go through as individuals and as a family."