Judge orders U.S. to let teen immigrants obtain abortions

WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials must allow two pregnant teenage immigrants being held in detention facilities to see doctors about having abortions, a federal judge ruled Monday.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington issued a temporary restraining order that bars administration officials from preventing the two 17-year-olds from leaving the shelters. One of the immigrants is 10 weeks pregnant and the other is in her 22nd week, according to the judge’s order.

Officials are “required to transport” the two or allow them “to be transported, promptly and without delay … to an abortion provider, in order to obtain any pregnancy or abortion-related medical care,” the judge said.

Within an hour, administration lawyers said they would allow the girl who is 22 weeks pregnant to have an abortion.

But, moving with unusual speed, they asked the appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court to grant a two-week stay to allow judges to consider an appeal in the case of the other teenager or for the government to find a private sponsor who could house her.

Officials have been blocking both teenagers from leaving the detention facilities, following a Trump administration policy that seeks to prevent any immigrant in detention from obtaining an abortion.

The abortions would be paid for with private funds as the government does not provide or pay for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or a threat to the woman’s life.

Without the stay, “an abortion is very likely to occur imminently,” Justice Department lawyers told the courts. At issue, they said, is “whether the government must facilitate an abortion procedure that is not necessary to preserve the life or health of an unaccompanied minor who unlawfully entered the country.”

Judge Chutkan, an Obama administration appointee, had agreed to put her order on hold for 24 hours to “preserve the opportunity to seek emergency relief from the D.C. Circuit” if the administration chooses to appeal.

ACLU attorney Brigitte Amiri accused the administration of a “cruel and dystopian crusade to block abortion access for some of the most marginalized people in our country.”

“We’re prepared to keep fighting for as long as we need to,” she said in a statement.