HOUSTON (AP) — An appeals court on Thursday temporarily stayed a judge’s ruling that would have allowed a pregnant 17-year-old being held in a Texas facility for unaccompanied immigrant children to obtain an abortion.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a short ruling allowing the teenager to be taken to a counseling meeting with the doctor who would perform the abortion. Texas state law requires women to receive counseling 24 hours before an abortion. If the appeals court lifts the stay during a hearing Friday morning, the teen would still potentially be able to have the procedure later Friday or on Saturday.
Susan Hays, legal director for the Texas group Jane’s Due Process, which helps pregnant minors obtain an abortion, said the teen was receiving counseling Thursday morning.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services filed an appeal Wednesday night shortly after U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled in favor of the teenager.
The teen, whose name and country of origin have been withheld because she’s a minor, has already received a state court order permitting her to have the abortion. But federal officials have refused to transport her or temporarily release her so that others can take her to have the procedure.
She is being held at a facility in Texas administered under a contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for sheltering children who illegally enter the United States unaccompanied by a parent.
She’s believed to be about 15 weeks pregnant. Texas law bans most abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy and requires women seeking an abortion to meet with the doctor who will perform the procedure a day beforehand. The state also requires minors to get the consent of a parent or obtain a waiver from a judge.
HHS argued to the appeals court that the department had adopted a policy of “refusing to facilitate abortions” except in “very limited circumstances.” It said the teen could instead ask to be returned to her country of origin. Her lawyers have said she is from Central America and crossed into the United States in September.
Appointed by: Barack Obama
Yeah…“but but but her Goldman Sachs speeches…”
So the teen has been granted permission to get an abortion but the Dept, of HHS says because she is in their custody she can’t have one? This is insane “HHS argued to the appeals court that the department had adopted a policy of “refusing to facilitate abortions” except in “very limited circumstances.” It said the teen could instead ask to be returned to her country of origin.” So she was raped and that doesn’t fit their definition of “very limited circumstances”? They would rather she have the child which would become a US citizen?
This is the newest attack women who are raped must deliver the child, doesn’t matter what the circumstances are, which then will lead to so what if the mother’s life is in danger, so it doesn’t matter if the woman dies they’ll just keep her hooked up to machines until they can harvest the child, and it won’t matter that a child impregnated can have her fertility ruined, develop other heath problems.
This should be known as Birth By Any Means Necessary.
Unreal. This whole situation is f-ing sick.
Considering we know nothing about her or her situation (which we shouldn’t, because it’s none of our damn business), and considering how many immigrants, adult or minor, are sexually assaulted or raped during their journey to America, it is entirely possible these Republicans are trying to force her to have her rapist’s baby.
That’s an interesting argument from HHS. In 1973 the Supreme Court ruled that abortion is a Constitutionally protected right and that “For the stage subsequent to approximately the end of the first trimester, the State, in promoting its interest in the health of the mother, may, if it chooses, regulate the abortion procedure in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health.” So the HHS, a department of the federal government, asserts that it is not bound by Supreme Court decisions that it doesn’t like.