[weezie]

My question involves emancipation laws for the State of: Missouri

I have a young lady that she was moved to Missouri by her Mother and she is pregnant. She is 16 and she is here in New Mexico on a visit and she does not want to go back to her mother because of many different reasons and major reason is her and her mother butt heads and it is very stressfull. Is there a runaway law that her mother could make her come home? She is also on disability for her impaired hearing and she is going blind but she wears glasses. What leg do we have to stand on? Any help would be greatly appreciated.:

[mmmagique]

What is your relationship with this young lady?

Father?
Friend?
Other?

What is your age?

Thanks!

~Christina

[aardvarc]

You don't have a leg to stand on. So long as she is an unmarried, unemancipated minor, she goes where her legal guardian or parent says she goes. No court is going to emancipate a pregnant minor, or a minor with a dependent, so her only legal options are:

a) her mom allows her to live with someone else, or

b) if she feels there is abuse occurring, she can report to local CPS authorities, who in extreme cases can remove her from the home and put her in foster care or placement with another family member, or

c) a court can be petitioned to consider a change in legal guardianship (check with your local probate court)

Other than that, a third party (you) could be looking at serious legal problems, including criminal charges for harboring a runaway or contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Send her back to mom on time.

[weezie]

Well I am not really kin to her How it came down was that her mother and my son were dating for 2 years and they split up and went thier seperate ways and my son moved them to missouri just because they thought that would be the place and she did not want to move . Now that she is here she calls me grandmother. I am 54 years old. She is suppose to fly back home on the 11th of August and she says I do not want to go back there for I hate it and my mother is to involved with another man and we just dont get along is what she says. I know they do butt heads alot and her mothers life is first not her kids. We just dont know if she refuses to go home what do we do to keep her here. I was told all we had to do was the officers did show up we would just call her mom and tell her where she is at but it would be not any different then right now. Thanks for your time and help

[cyjeff]

Then the authorities would be called, she would be returned to her parents as a runaway and you would be charged with harboring.

Drive the young mom to be to the airport.

[weezie]

She is not with me and I told her she needed to return and she said she did not want to so I JUST asked for her I am a mom also and I told her that she needed to go back and she dont want to for her mom is mean so I went another route and have the CPS get involved. She can tell them the horrible stories and they will do the right thing for her.

[cyjeff]

Well, I sincerely hope that noone felt it necessary to get between you and your children.

It is not unusual for parents of a pregnant teen to be a little upset. I don't know why you felt it appropriate to get involved, but it wasn't.