Judge won’t order officials to allow abortion for immigrant

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in San Francisco said Wednesday that the government cannot prevent a pregnant 17-year-old at a Texas facility for unaccompanied immigrant children from getting an abortion, but declined to issue an order that would bar federal officials from interfering in the girl’s access to the procedure.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler said the legal challenge on behalf of the girl by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California was not filed in the right court.

The ruling allows the girl’s attorneys to file a new lawsuit seeking the same order in another federal court district. A lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice, Peter Phipps, said at a hearing Wednesday that the government might propose having Jane Doe’s case heard in Texas or Washington, D.C.

Brigitte Amiri, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU, said the group hadn’t decided its next step, but would continue to fight for the girl’s right to an abortion.

“A first-year law student understands that it is unconstitutional for the government to ban abortion,” she said. “The legal claim is pretty straightforward.”

The ACLU says the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is refusing to let the girl be taken for an abortion. The girl may be up to 14 weeks’ pregnant, Rochelle Garza, a lawyer appointed to represent the girl’s legal interests, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Texas law prohibits most abortions after 20 weeks.

In her ruling, Beeler said there was “no justification” for restricting the girl’s access to an abortion.