Sherry is 32, never married, and employed as social worker for the VA. She enjoys the company of men and likes to party. Sherry gave birth to a daughter at 16. Angel, who is 16 and in 10th grade, was reared mostly by Sherry's mother, who is 60, legally blind, and living on disability.
Sherry supports her mother and daughter. They live in a small apartment. There are no other close family members.
Sherry's mother views premarital sex, sex education and birth control as morally unacceptable. Sherry's daughter has heard the arguments fly back and forth about a women's right to choose (from Sherry) and the evils of abortion (from her grandmother). When Angel was 15, Sherry offered made her daughter an appointment to see a doctor for birth control pills; the grandmother canceled the appointment.
Angel is now six weeks pregnant following a brief relationship with an unemployed neighbor, who has since moved away. Sherry told Angel she would pay for abortion but not for child care, as she cannot support another person on her income.
The grandmother claims that abortion is always wrong and urges the daughter to keep the child and marry the father. The grandmother claims that she is too old and sick to care for an infant herself.
Under Arkansas law, intercourse between a 16 year old and an adult is not statutory rape. No one knows how to locate the biological father for prosecution. At 16, Angel can obtain an abortion only with her mother's written consent. There is no permanent home available for Angel and a child.
Angel's baby will be of mixed race, and the circumstances of its conception may make it less likely to be adopted as a newborn, and as such, more likely to become a ward of the state and placed in foster care.
Propose a course of action for Angel and her family, which is at once (a) justifiable and (b) realistic, in terms of the situation as stated.