Federal Judge Rules Trump Must Allow Pregnant Illegal Teens to Obtain Abortions

A federal judge ruled Monday the Trump administration must allow two pregnant illegal immigrant teens to have abortions.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan of Washington, DC, an Obama appointee, issued a temporary restraining order that, as reported by the Washington Times, would allow the teens’ “constitutional right to decide whether to carry their pregnancies to term — including their right to change their minds regarding the same.”

The teens, both 17 and referred to as “Jane Roe and Jane Poe” for the purpose of the court proceedings, are being held in a detention shelter. They were apprehended as they attempted to sneak across the border and are considered Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC), until they obtain sponsors in this country.

As the New York Times reports, Jane Roe is so far advanced in her pregnancy that her abortion will require surgical removal of her unborn child from her womb. Jane Poe, says the report, is in the latter part of her second trimester.

Planned Parenthood – the nation’s largest abortion provider – celebrated Chutkan’s decision:

Judge ruled the gov’t is trying to “unilaterally veto the reproductive choices of the unaccompanied minors in its custody.” That’s unconstitutional and unacceptable. https://t.co/hYEeZR6ASj #JusticeforJane

— Planned Parenthood Action (@PPact) December 19, 2017

The ruling requires the Trump administration “to transport” the teens 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 stayed her order for the girls to be allowed to have abortions, however, for 24 hours in order to “preserve the opportunity to seek emergency relief from the D.C. Circuit” should the Trump administration decide to appeal.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been battling the Trump administration’s policy which states that federally funded shelters must not take “any action that facilitates” an abortion for an illegal immigrant minor without “approval from the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.”

The ACLU sued the Trump administration in October, claiming it was using “unconstitutional veto power” over abortion, and won its case before Chutkan for “Jane Doe,” who ultimately had an abortion at 11 weeks before the Trump administration could appeal the case with the Supreme Court, causing the ACLU’s actions to be considered questionable.

In the case of Roe v. Wade in 1973, the Supreme Court created a constitutional right to abortion though the Constitution never provided such a right.

According to the Hyde Amendment, American taxpayers do not pay for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother’s life.

“If defendants are not immediately restrained from prohibiting shelter staff from transporting J.R. and J.P. to abortion facilities or otherwise interfering with or obstructing their access to an abortion,” Chutkan wrote in the decision. “J.R. and J.P. will both suffer irreparable injury in the form of, at a minimum, increased risk to their health, and perhaps the permanent inability to obtain a desired abortion to which they are legally entitled.”

Pro-life organizations are condemning the decision.

Americans United for Life (AUL) President Catherine Glenn Foster said in a statement sent to Breitbart News that, once again, “a federal court has ruled against both Hyde Amendment principles and the majority of Americans who support significant limits on abortion.”

“Moreover, the law already provides young women with legal opportunities to seek a sponsor without involving federal resources, leaving no legal or practical reason for this decision,” she added.

Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins said the ACLU’s drive to expand its claim of abortion rights even for illegal immigrants “represents the true heart of abortion advocates who want to force U.S. taxpayers to pay for all abortions and to create a new Roe v. Wade 2.0 that applies to every woman who happens to be in the U.S.”

“The U.S. should not become a sanctuary country for abortion,” Hawkins added. “America should offer people a chance at a new life, not the death of their pre-born children.”