Judge Won’t Let Jailed Forger Have Abortion

A jailed forger who appealed for probation so she could get an abortion was sent to prison by a judge who doesn’t want the procedure done.

“I’m saying that she is not having a second-term abortion,” Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Patricia Cleary said at Tuesday’s sentencing hearing for Yuriko Kawaguchi, who is more than five months’ pregnant.

Kawaguchi, who pleaded guilty Aug. 10 to forgery in a credit-card scam, was sentenced to six months in jail, with credit for four months already served.

The judge would have considered releasing Kawaguchi, 21, on probation had she agreed to have the baby, the Plain Dealer reported, citing a court transcript.

Cleary said Thursday that she is against abortion.

But she also said Kawaguchi’s sentence was not based on her pregnancy, but on her crime.

Kawaguchi, a student at UC Berkeley, referred to her “unwanted pregnancy” when she pleaded guilty, telling the judge: “I will be trying to have a procedure.”

“She pretty much played God with my life,” Kawaguchi said from jail later.

Joan Englund, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, said the group is exploring ways to get Kawaguchi out of jail.

Englund called the judge’s actions reprehensible and “an egregious abuse of power.”

Ohio prisoners can get abortions, but generally not after the fourth month of pregnancy, a prison spokesman said.