Memphis man accused of assaulting girlfriend who refused abortion

24-year-old Juan Lee of Memphis, Tennessee, has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault following an alleged physical altercation with his pregnant girlfriend.

According to Local Memphis, the victim claims she was riding in a car with Lee when he demanded that she abort the baby. She claims she told Lee that the choice was hers, after which he became violently angry.

The victim claims she exited the car, but was pulled back in by Lee, who allegedly began punching and strangling her. Lee allegedly drove away with the victim in the car, but then pulled over and began beating her again. The victim also claims Lee kicked her in the head, while she was on the ground after being pulled out of the car.

WREG News 3 reports that the kick resulted in a large gash to the victim’s head.

Unfortunately, situations in which women are pressured, threatened, or coerced into having abortions may not be as rare as some think. As Live Action News has reported, many women have felt forced into abortions, whether by violent boyfriends, friends and/or family, or abortion businesses. It has become such a problem that some states, including Michigan, have proposed and/or passed laws that would impose harsher penalties on anyone who coerces a woman to abort her child. NARAL Pro-Choice America opposes these protections for women, claiming that they are unnecessary.

Some studies have found that up to 64 percent of women who aborted their babies felt coerced in some way to do so.