On Wednesday, the ACLU secured a court order which prevents the Trump administration from blocking a young immigrant woman in custody from obtaining an abortion. The 17-year-old is currently in a shelter for unaccompanied minors in Texas and requested an abortion last month. Though they have the utmost disregard for immigrants, Trump and company seem to think it’s their business what this young woman does with her body and have made it their mission to stop her from exercising a right to making her own decisions regarding reproductive choice.
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to allow a pregnant, undocumented teenager to obtain an abortion.
The government, the judge [US District Judge Tanya Chutkan] wrote, must "promptly and without delay" allow the 17-year-old to be transported to an abortion provider closest to the shelter where she is being held. The judge wrote that federal officials are "restrained from interfering with or obstructing [the teen's] access to abortion counseling or an abortion." [...]
The judge was incredulous as she questioned the lawyer for the government, at one point saying she was “astounded” at the government’s apparent position that the teen’s only options were to either carry the pregnancy to term or go back to her home country.
Even though a federal judge has ruled that this is absolutely none of the government’s business, they have decided to appeal the decision. Late Wednesday night, lawyers from the Justice Department filed a motion appealing to the US Court of Appeals in DC asking for a delay in the order. Unfortunately, they were successful as the appeals court agreed to temporarily stay the judge’s order, citing “the purpose of this administrative stay is to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motion for stay.” A hearing is now scheduled for Friday morning in which the court will hear oral arguments on the case.
This is appalling and nothing short of a total violation of this young woman’s right to privacy. But more importantly, this move is designed to tie up the legal system with an appeal long enough to force Jane Doe (as the 17-year-old is known) into a full-term pregnancy that she wishes to terminate. She is now 15 weeks pregnant and, in Texas, abortions after 20 weeks are illegal.
State laws in Texas also mandate two trips to obtain an abortion, with a waiting period in between, as well as an ultrasound before a woman can get the procedure.
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Why in the world is this issue worth wasting time in court and taxpayer money? More importantly, what exactly is the legal basis for their objection to her abortion? She was already granted permission to get an abortion without parental consent from a state judge, but the government has refused to allow her permission to travel to a clinic. She is neither asking for the government to provide her transportation to the clinic nor pay for the abortion itself.
They have no legitimate right to do this. It is not within the mandate of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Administration of Child and Family Services nor the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Yet, each of these agencies, and the people running them (all men by the way) seem to think they know what’s in the best interest of this young woman more than she does.
These anti-abortion crusaders are holding this woman captive and forcing her into motherhood. She is an undocumented immigrant minor—here without a sponsor. That is a status under immigration law but that does not define her nor take away her agency or personhood.
There are states that allow 17 year olds to marry, yet the government seems to think this woman isn’t capable of making her own reproductive decisions? This is shameful, cruel and something that should never happen in a civilized society.
But how civilized are we really? This is the same society that bred enslaved persons for labor. It would seem that in 2017 we would have progressed beyond this kind of thinking and behavior. Women have always been alienated and demonized so that’s not new. But thanks to this administration, in 9 months we’ve regressed so much that it’s now policy to force women to give birth to babies they don’t want. And the government will now take you to court over it.