Former Scientologist Laura DeCrescenzo alleges that the church forced her to undergo an abortion at age 17.
DeCrescenzo and the Church of Scientology “have been in an on-going legal battle for years, and the church asked a federal court to dismiss the entire case in December,” LifeNews reports.
DeCrescenzo, now 39, says she joined the group under her parents at age 12 and served in the infamous Church of Scientology International Sea Org after having left home. While serving, she allegedly suffered harsh working conditions and long hours. The horror reached its apex when Scientology allegedly forced her and other women into getting abortions.
“I was told by the commanding officer of my organization that … at this point the baby wasn’t a baby, it was just tissue,” DeCrescenzo said, previously. “I never agreed to have an abortion. Did I concede? Yes, I did. Does it kill me every day? Yes, it does.”
DeCrescenzo says the church forced her to work as much as 100 hours per week while dishing out “severe punishments” to those who failed to meet demands.
“There are two very different versions of Scientology. There is the Scientology as presented to the outside world and there is a different Scientology in which Plaintiff lived and worked for approximately 13 years,” her lawsuit states.
Here’s more from the report:
She claims that she was “blackmailed” by the CSI and its agents who stored information on her and “interrogated [her] on a primitive lie detector known as an e-meter” to keep her from leaving her staff position.
This practice of “security checking’”was followed up, her suit claims, with the threat that she would be “declared a suppressive person and an enemy of the church” should she leave. She was also told she would be forced to “disconnect” – cease all contact – from family and friends should she leave.
The Church of Scientology denies the charges. Her case will be heard in August unless the church is granted their dismissal request.
Scientology has a notorious reputation for allegedly forcing their members to undergo abortions. Former Scientologist Samantha Domingo said the church treated her and other women like “criminals” if they wanted to keep their babies.
“I bought into it. I had an abortion to prove I wasn’t this evil person, this Satan that everybody was saying I was,” Domingo said. “I murdered a child, that’s the way I look at it, and it will forever live with me that I murdered a child. I will never forgive myself for that, I will never be able to rewrite it.”
Former member Claire Headley told Leah Remini during an A&E special on Scientology that she and other women were forced or coerced into having abortions.
The Trump administration is reportedly looking into having Scientology’s tax exemption revoked.