Detained immigrant teen presses request for abortion

Case taken to full appeals court after ruling by panel.

Lawyers for an undocumented pregnant teenager detained in Texas have asked the full federal appeals court of 10 judges in Washington to immediately consider allowing her to get an abortion.

The move came after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday declined to order the federal government to immediately let the 17-year-old girl obtain an abortion. Instead, the appeals court panel gave the Department of Health and Human Services 11 days to find a sponsor to take custody of the girl.

Late Sunday, lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union filed a petition asking the full D.C. appeals court to hold another hearing for the girl, who is about 15 weeks pregnant.

The teenager, identified in court papers only as Jane Doe, is a Central American immigrant who has been seeking an abortion since September. She has a permission from a state judge to obtain an abortion, but Trump administration officials have refused to transport her to a clinic.

The government says it has a policy of “refusing to facilitate” abortions for undocumented minors. This marks a shift from the Obama administration, which allowed them. Her lawyers say the government is violating her constitutional right to choose an abortion.

The panel’s decision to allow the government to continue to blocking the abortion, lawyers argued in the petition Sunday, “violates decades of well-settled Supreme Court precedent that holds that the government may not impose an undue burden on-or, as in this extraordinary case, completely block-a woman’s ability to obtain an abortion.”

The court gave the government until 11 a.m. Monday to file a response to the petition.

“Time is really of the essence,” Arthur Spitzer, a lawyer with the ACLU, told The Post early Monday morning. “Every day, every week that goes by is a psychological harm to her.”

Spitzer added that the longer the pregnancy continues, the more risky the abortion could become.

“The government has already delayed this by a month,” Spitzer said. “One way or another we hope that they will decide quickly.”

While the full court does not often review the actions of a panel on emergency order, Spitzer thought the chances were relatively good in this case. Five votes are required to review the panel’s actions and one of the judges is recused, Spitzer said.

If the appeals court declines to review the panel’s decision, the lawyers will consider taking the case to the Supreme Court, Spitzer said.