Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is pushing for the U.S. to issue a visa to the disabled British Catholic woman who is fighting against a UK judge’s “forced abortion” order, sending a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Monday.
On Friday, Justice Nathalie Lieven ruled that the woman, who is in her 20s and suffers from cognitive disabilities, should be forced to abort her child. She is currently 22 weeks pregnant and wants to keep her child but is under t≥≥≥≥≥≥≥care of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).
The woman’s mother is a former midwife and told the court that they strongly object to an abortion, as they are Catholic. She said she would take on the responsibility of raising her grandchild. The woman’s mother also argued that doctors “underestimated [her daughter’s] ability and understanding, and that more weight should be placed on her wishes and feelings.” However, the judge did not budge.
“I am acutely conscious of the fact that for the State to order a woman to have a termination where it appears that she doesn’t want it is an immense intrusion,” Lieven said in her ruling.
Lieven argued that she was operating under the woman’s “best interests.”
“I have to operate in [her] best interests, not on society’s views of termination,” she continued.
As Breitbart News reported:
“I think she would like to have a baby in the same way she would like to have a nice doll,” Lieven decided of the pregnant woman, adding she did not believe the woman’s mother could possibly care for her own daughter and the baby at the same time.
Lieven said she also did not believe the woman could tolerate giving up her baby for adoption or foster care, adding that once the woman had a baby “outside her body she can touch” she “would suffer greater trauma from having a baby removed [from her care].”
Rubio caught wind of the story and jumped into the conversation, urging the U.S. to intervene and issue the woman and her mother a visa in order to escape a forced state-sanctioned abortion.
“If story accurate 22 week pregnant disabled woman is being required to undergo a forced abortion by UK court,” he tweeted Saturday.
He also made a note of the deafening silence from the “pro-choice” crowd.
“The U.S. should offer her & her mother a visa. And why are the voices who always talk about a woman’s right to choose so quiet on this?” he asked.
If story accurate 22 week pregnant disabled woman is being required to undergo a forced abortion by UK court.
The U.S. should offer her & her mother a visa.
And why are the voices who always talk about a woman’s right to choose so quiet on this?
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) June 22, 2019
Rubio followed up on his tweet Monday, sending a letter to Secretary Pompeo and Acting Secretary McAleenan, urging their departments to investigate this “clear human rights violation” and to ultimately “offer assistance to her and her mother” by way of a “temporary non-immigrant visa,” “humanitarian parole for a temporary period,” or working with medical facilities in a third country “that will not compel her to undergo a forced late-term abortion.”
Rubio’s letter reads in part:
It is critical to note the fact that this pregnant Catholic woman and her mother oppose the ruling. Even British Justice Lieven has acknowledged their opposition and the “immense intrusion” that her ruling to authorize a forced late-term abortion on this woman therefore represents. “I am acutely conscious of the fact that for the State to order a woman to have a termination where it appears that she doesn’t want it is an immense intrusion,” Justice Lieven conceded in her ruling, but then added condescendingly: “I have to operate in [her] best interests, not on society’s views of termination.”
Notwithstanding our Nation’s special relationship with the United Kingdom, the United States should assist this pregnant woman if she, or her mother, seeks a humanitarian alternative to this judicially-mandated forced late-term abortion. I therefore urge your Departments to quickly investigate this case and, within all applicable laws and regulations, to offer assistance to her and her mother to seek alternative medical care if they should so choose.
A UK appeals court halted Lieven’s “forced abortion” ruling Monday.
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