Abortions for migrant teens back in court

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s policy blocking abortion access for pregnant teenagers in immigration custody returned to court on Wednesday in a case that has attracted broad attention because of the previous involvement of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., issued a nationwide order in March that prevented the government from standing in the way of immigrant teens seeking to end their pregnancies.

Justice Department lawyers asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reverse the order, saying the government should not have to “facilitate the termination of life through abortion.”

The case has taken on broader significance because of the initial involvement of Kavanaugh, a judge on the D.C. Circuit and now Trump’s nominee to the high court. Kavanaugh was on the panel of judges reviewing the case when it first came to the appeals court last fall.

Since his nomination, the case has repeatedly been cited by abortion rights advocates as evidence Kavanaugh would allow far more restrictions on abortion than the justice he would replace on the high court, Anthony Kennedy.

When the case was on appeal, Kavanaugh’s colleagues reversed his order that would have delayed a teen’s access to abortion services.