By Robin Gericke, Executive Editor
A 17-year-old girl was stopped as she crossed the US border on Sept. 7. Since she was an unaccompanied minor, she was taken into custody and placed in a federally funded shelter in southern Texas under the jurisdiction of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), according to the BBC. Identified only as ‘Jane Doe’ in reports, she came from an abusive home in an unnamed country in Central America, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). While in custody, she received a physical, and the results of a pregnancy test were the catalyst for a battle between civil rights lawyers and Trump administration about Constitutional rights for illegal immigrants.
Upon finding out that she was nine weeks pregnant, Jane Doe requested an abortion. Since the state of Texas requires parental permission for the procedure, Jane Doe worked with lawyers to obtain a judicial waiver and made an appointment for Sept. 28 at a local abortion clinic. However, the day before her appointment, ORR officials intervened and denied transportation.
A new policy enforced by the Trump administration states that no federally funded shelters can allow a minor in their custody to have an abortion unless they have written permission from E. Scott Lloyd, the director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. In March, Lloyd wrote that shelters receiving federal dollars “should not be supporting abortion services pre- or post-release; only pregnancy services and life-affirming options counseling.” The New York Times reported that Jane Doe’s lawyers are accusing federal officials of “holding her hostage,” requiring her to have a sonogram against her will and to receive religious counseling that urged her to continue the pregnancy. Against Jane Doe’s wishes, her mother was also notified about the pregnancy. Jane Doe told her lawyers that her parents beat a pregnant older sister with firewood so she would have a miscarriage. Abortion is illegal in her home country.
On Oct. 18, US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered that the teenager be taken to a clinic to receive an abortion. “I’m astounded that the government is going to make this 17-year-old girl who has received judicial authorization for a medical procedure to which she is constitutionally authorized choose between a pregnancy that she does not want to go forward with to term or returning to the country from which she left,” said Judge Chutkan.
A DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that because Jane Doe could find a sponsor to take her out of government custody, the government is not prohibiting her from getting an abortion. However, her lawyers argued that the sponsorship process often takes months. As abortion after 20 weeks is illegal in the state of Texas, the ACLU called this expectation of finding a sponsor “far-fetched.” The ACLU filed an emergency appeal, and the court ruled in favor of the original district court’s ruling on Oct. 24, stating that Jane Doe should be transported from the shelter to have the abortion.
“She is brave and courageous and resilient,” said Brigitte Amiri, senior staff lawyer for the ACLU. “She is also tired by the entire ordeal.”
Photo courtesy of Unsplash