My daughter is pregnant. She has a rare blood platelet defect which causes her blood to not stick together properly. Because of her defect her health makes it to difficult to care for the baby herself. She is only 17, my husband and myself think that she is not thinking about her health. She and her boyfriend want to have an abortion. I think it is to risky. My husband and I want to adopt the baby after it is born. Do we have any rights? Thank you, Melissa D.

Actually you have no rights.. its not your child, its your child's , child... if they both decide to have an abortion.. you can't do anything to stop them. At 17 I don't think you can even stop her from having the abortion.

And even if they decided to have it... you would need both of their consents for an adoption.

Explain your wishes to them and they might agree. But you can't force them to.

The only thing you can do is offer that if she has the baby you would love to adopt and raise it and they will have no responsibility financial or in any way. If they do not go for your offer there is nothing you can do.

I think you should offer to get your daughter counseling so that she can make the best decision possible FOR HER.

This is absolutely, 100% NOT ABOUT YOU.

Get her to a doctor, get her to Planned Parenthood, get her to a counselor who has no stake in this at all---she needs someone neutral to hear her out and help her decide what to do---with no guilt trips, no tears, no recriminations, no moral obligations, no anything involved.

You cannot stop her from having an abortion. You can't even adopt the child after it is born without not only her consent but her blessing---most birthparents CHOOSE the adoptive parents these days.

You just need to be supportive of her choice, whatever that choice is. You need to make sure she knows that you love her NO MATTER WHAT. You need to listen to HER, not make her listen to you.

Synnen can't possibly have said it better. I just want to ask where you get your information that a blood disorder would put her at higher risk having an abortion than giving birth? Has her doctor told you this? It sounds counter-intuitive.

Having an abortion vs giving birth was something I was questioning in my mind too.