Court rules against Trump on immigrant teen abortion policy

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court in Washington ruled Friday against a Trump administration policy it described as a “blanket ban” preventing immigrant teens in government custody from getting abortions, and it kept in place an order blocking the policy.

The policy, which dates to 2017, prohibited shelters from facilitating abortions for children held in government shelters after entering the country illegally. The policy has not been in force since March 2018, when a judge blocked it, writing that the government couldn’t implement a policy that strips minors of the right to make reproductive choices. On Friday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld that ruling.

The opinion for the panel of judges — Sri Srinivasan, Robert Wilkins and Laurence Silberman — was unsigned. Beyond that agreement, however, Silberman wrote a dissent arguing in support of giving officials a limited window to transfer a minor out of government custody to the care of a sponsor, where the child could then obtain an abortion without the government’s assistance.

The Trump administration could now ask the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to hear the case.

It could also appeal to the Supreme Court. But Justice Brett Kavanaugh likely wouldn’t take part in the case. That’s because he ruled on the case at an earlier stage as a judge on the D.C. Circuit, where he made the argument Silberman repeated about placing a minor in a sponsor’s care. That would leavefour liberals and four conservatives to rule on the case.