Court to Rule After Trump Admin. Blocks Undocumented Teen’s Abortion
FROM NBCNEWS :
WASHINGTON — A 17-year-old who came to the U.S. illegally in September is challenging a Trump administration policy that has blocked her from getting an abortion while she remains in federal detention. Known in the court record only as Jane Doe, she crossed the southern border on her own, unaccompanied by relatives, and was taken into federal custody at a detention center in Texas.
After a medical examination revealed that she was pregnant, she sought an abortion. Texas authorities gave her permission, but the Department of Health and Human Services, which runs the detention facility, refused.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Washington ordered the government to let her leave the facility to get an abortion. But the appeals court put that order on hold, held an emergency hearing Friday, and promised a quick ruling.
At its core, the legal issue is whether the government is simply refusing to help her get an abortion, or whether it is actually preventing from doing so.
The Obama administration permitted young women in Jane Doe's position to get abortions. But in March, HHS announced that all federally funded shelters are prohibited from taking "any action that facilitates" access to abortion by unaccompanied minors.
Justice Department lawyer Catherine Dorsey told the appeals court Friday that the federal government "has not put any obstacles in her path. Rather, the government is refusing to facilitate an abortion, which it is permitted to do in furtherance of its legitimate interest in protecting fetal life and childbirth."
Jane Doe can obtain an abortion by returning to her home country in Central America or finding a U.S. citizen willing to sponsor her presence in the U.S., Dorsey said.
Allowing unaccompanied minors to get an abortion while in custody, she said, would be facilitating it, because detention facility staff would have to go with them.
But the ACLU, representing Jane Doe, said the government is holding her hostage, literally blocking the door to prevent her getting the care she wants. A high number of young immigrant women need access to reproductive services, the ACLU said, because many of them are the victims of sexual assault before and during their journeys to the United States.
"No one may have a veto power over anyone's abortion decision, including a parent or a husband," the ACLU's Brigitte Amiri told the court.
And it's by no means certain, the ACLU said, that she would have access to abortion services if she left the U.S. and went home, where she was abused by her parents.
The three federal judges who heard the case Friday seemed sympathetic to Jane Doe's plea. But Judge Brett Kavanaugh said releasing her to a local sponsor would be the best option and would avoid "a sweeping constitutional decision."
A decision could affect hundreds of young women who came to the U.S. as unaccompanied minors.
Groups opposed to abortion have urged the court not to overturn the Trump administration policy.
Kristin Hawkins of Students for Life of America said the such a decision would "force taxpayer and government involvement in abortions for everyone, including illegal immigrants. The US should not become the home of International Abortion, Inc."
The court is expected to rule promptly. Court records say Jane Doe's pregnancy is in its 15th week, and Texas bans abortion after 20 weeks.
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If she wants an abortion, let her get an abortion. But it seems that deporting her back to Central America where she can obtain an abortion would satisfy everyone on both sides of the issue: an illegal immigrant gets deported and she can get an abortion if she wishes, and the government doesn't have to "facilitate" or prevent her choice to have an abortion. It's a win-win.
One little interesting note in the article: "Rather, the government is refusing to facilitate an abortion, which it is permitted to do in furtherance of its legitimate interest in protecting fetal life and childbirth."
Technically, the government has no such legitimate interest until fetal viability is reached. That was a key components of the whole abortion debate originally.
Depends, is she demanding an abortion because she got caught here and will be sent back? Did she cross the border illegally knowing she was pregnant hoping to avoid capture until she had her anchor baby? 15 weeks even if she has been here a month before the examination, how could she not know? If she knew she was pregnant and going to use the child as a reason to stay in the US and now she's been caught and now wants to get rid of it, don't you think that is kind of heartless?
Heartless on her part - absolutely.
Unfortunately, we do not have the answers to those "what-if's." Hopefully, more information will become available in time. But regardless, if she wants an abortion, she should be allowed to have one if she chooses, and/or be deported back.
I thought that’s why they come here in the first place - to make anchor babies. Isn’t that what conservatives teach?
Ok......she is 17 and came to the "promise land", except, we can't promise you anything without proper credentials. How long it took for her to come over from Central America we don't know. During that trip, perhaps, she became pregnant. If an examination showed she was pregnant, then, she wasn't, obviously, showing.
I am sure there those who will sponsor her abortion and when it is over she will have to return to her home.