Immigrant’s abortion blocked by court for now

The girl, identified in court papers as “Jane Doe,” is being held at a shelter in Texas, where under state law she cannot have an abortion until 24 hours after counseling from a doctor.

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court temporarily blocked a teenage immigrant being held in U.S. custody from obtaining an abortion today or Saturday, but said the teen must receive court-ordered counseling from a doctor Thursday.

The court will hear arguments this morning on whether the teenager, who is in her 15th week of pregnancy, should be allowed to have the abortion her lawyers say she has been requesting for weeks.

The girl, identified in court papers as “Jane Doe,” is being held at a shelter in Texas, where under state law she cannot have an abortion until 24 hours after counseling from a doctor.

She was detained by U.S. officials in early September after crossing the border illegally, and is being held in a shelter overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, which cares for undocumented-immigrant minors until they can be reunited with family members.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., ordered the federal government on Wednesday to allow the 17-year-old to have an abortion, saying the teen would face “increased risk to her health” and perhaps be forced to carry the pregnancy to term if the government did not act quickly. Texas bars most abortions after 20 weeks.

Late Wednesday, the Justice Department appealed Chutkan’s decision, arguing that “Ms. Doe should not be able to force the federal government to facilitate her access to an elective abortion simply because she was apprehended entering the United States illegally, is properly in custody, and chooses to stay here illegally rather than depart.”

The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit — Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson, Brett Kavanaugh and Patricia Millett — said its order Thursday was intended only to “give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motion for stay and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion.”

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union, who are representing the 17-yearold, said she would undergo the state-mandated counseling Thursday near her shelter in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, along the U.S.-Mexico border. In court, they argued that she has a right to an abortion, which she will pay for, because of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that guarantees a woman’s right to the procedure.

“This administration has no shame and no regard for a woman’s health or decisions,” said ACLU lawyer Brigitte Amiri. “Weeks ago, our client decided to end her pregnancy. Her decision has been disregarded, and she’s now been dragged into a protracted legal battle over her ability to get the care she needs.”

If the teenager does not obtain an abortion this week, her lawyers said, she may have to go to another health center hundreds of miles away because of scheduling problems and clinic hours. Texas law requires that the same doctor counsel a patient and perform the abortion.

The teenager was informed she was pregnant after a health examination performed after she was taken into federal custody. She sought an abortion soon afterward, her lawyers said. The Health and Human Services Department denied her request Sept. 27 and has refused to release her to a court-appointed guardian or transport her to an abortion provider.

In court filings, the Justice Department said the U.S. government has a “legitimate interest in promoting fetal life and childbirth over abortion.” They argued that the girl could seek an abortion on her own by finding a person to sponsor her legally in the United States, which would allow them to release her, or by voluntarily returning to her homeland, somewhere in Central America.

Top law enforcement officials from nine states, including Texas, Missouri and Ohio, are backing the Justice Department, saying in a court filing that there is no “constitutional right to abortion on demand.”

The Supreme Court has said the government cannot impose an “undue burden” on a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy in the early stages.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in court papers that the high court has never said that abortion rights extend to undocumented immigrants without “significant ties” to the United States.

“No court has ever before issued such a sweeping order — and with good reason,” the attorneys general said in their court filings. “The district court’s order effectively creates a right to abortion for anyone on Earth who entered the United States illegally, no matter how briefly.”

The teen’s nationality has not been made public.