A Federal Appeals Court Just Ruled That an Undocumented Teen Girl Can Get an Abortion
Following an extensive legal battle, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that an undocumented immigrant teen—who is pregnant and has been held in federally-funded shelter—must be allowed to have an abortion “without delay.”
The 6-3 decision from the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit overturns an earlier ruling from a three-judge panel, and as Judge Patricia A. Millett wrote for the majority, it rights a grave constitutional wrong by the government.”
The 17-year-old girl, known in court documents as “Jane Doe,” found out she was pregnant not long after she crossed the border and was detained. Since September, the teen has been trying to obtain an abortion but has been blocked from doing so by the Trump administration—which has not allowed her to leave the government shelter in which she’s been held in order to obtain the procedure.
But as more time has passed, the more urgent her situation has become. The teen is now over 15 weeks along, and because she entered into Texas upon crossing into the country, she’s been subject to the state’s restrictive abortion laws—which included banning the procedure after 20 weeks and adhering to a mandatory ultrasound and waiting period before a woman can have an abortion. Beyond these measures, Texas also requires minors to obtain parental consent before having an abortion—but a state judge waived this stipulation and gave the girl permission to have the procedure.
However, the Office of Refugee Resettlement within the Department of Health and Human Services—the branch that oversees the shelter where the teen has been staying—has a less than progressive stance on abortion rights. As Director Scott Lloyd said in a March email (via The Washington Post), ORR facilities “should not be supporting abortion services pre or post-release; only pregnancy services and life-affirming options counseling.”
The ACLU—who represented the teen—argued that the Trump administration was preventing her from exercising her constitutional rights. Last week, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan asked the administration to grant the teen’s request, saying she was “astounded” that the only choices the teen was being given were to carry her pregnancy to term or return to her home country.
“Just because she’s here illegally doesn’t mean she doesn’t have constitutional rights,” Chutkan said last Wednesday, adding that the girl must be given access to an abortion “promptly and without delay.”
The Department of Justice then filed an appeal last Friday and a three-judge panel decided to give the administration until the end of this month to find an adult sponsor who could assist the teen. The girl’s legal team then asked for a full bench to review the case, saying that time was running out for the girl to have an abortion under Texas state laws and all sponsorship options had been exhausted. On Tuesday, the lower court ruling—dating back to last Wednesday—was reinstated and the girl was given permission to have an abortion.
When the girl will have the procedure is unclear, but many are viewing the ruling as not only a major victory for reproductive rights—but for immigrant rights as well.
“Every step of the way, the Trump administration has shown their true colors in this case,” said Brigitte Amiri, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, in a statement.”It’s clear that their anti-woman, anti-abortion, anti-immigration agenda is unchecked by basic decency or even the bounds of the law. No one should have to go to court to get a safe, legal abortion.”