In a triple punch to free speech, religious liberty and the right to life, the American Civil Liberties Union is trying to force Catholic-run organizations to promote abortions to the illegal immigrant minors in their care.
The new pro-abortion effort is part of the ACLU’s larger agenda to force the government to help facilitate illegal immigrant minors’ abortions with taxpayer dollars.
In November, the ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging a new policy in the Office of Refugee Resettlement to encourage pregnant minors to consider life-affirming options.
In one of the many on-going legal back-and-forths in the case, the ACLU asked the court to “require [Office of Refugee Resettlement]-funded shelters to orally … as part of the orientation for new unaccompanied minors,” inform girls that if they are pregnant they “have the right to decide whether to have the baby or to have an abortion,” The Federalist reports.
It continues:
If the American Civil Liberties Union has its way, Catholic Charities and other faith-based organizations providing care for illegal alien minors will be forced to proclaim to the girls in their care during the shelter’s orientation that they have a “right” to an abortion. The ACLU seeks to compel this speech under the auspices of providing “notice” to the members of the recently certified class action in Garza v. Hargan.
… Even though the ACLU succeeded in obtaining abortions for (or release of) the four girls in ORR custody, it sought certification of a class action lawsuit with the class consisting of all pregnant unaccompanied minors held in government shelters. On March 30, 2017, federal judge Tanya Chutkan certified the ACLU’s requested class and entered a preliminary injunction against the ORR, requiring the federal government to facilitate abortions. As I explained at the time, Chutkan, a Barack Obama appointee, erred in certifying a class of all pregnant girls in ORR custody because a class action is only appropriate when there are “numerous” plaintiffs, and the ACLU only identified a handful of girls who wanted an abortion.
In 2017, the Office of Refugee Resettlement under HHS issued a new policy requiring that taxpayer-funded shelters for immigrants and refugees offer life-affirming support to unaccompanied minors who are pregnant. The duties of the office including providing basic care, including health care, to unaccompanied immigrant children until they are placed with a family member or sponsor.
The shelters may not take “any action that facilitates” an abortion for unaccompanied minors without his direct approval, and “grantees should not be supporting abortion services … only pregnancy services and life-affirming options counseling.”
The ACLU is seeking to overturn that policy and force the government to promote abortions.
Keep up with the latest pro-life news and information on Twitter. Follow @LifeNewsHQ
According to the report, it wants to force shelters to post abortion information in English and Spanish on site, and provide it to girls both at orientation and again after a pregnancy confirmation.
For decades, U.S. Catholic agencies have been on the front lines helping to provide young immigrants and refugees with physical and emotional support after they arrive in America. Yet, the ACLU has tried to attack those efforts again and again because Catholic agencies refuse to promote abortions.
In 2016, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), arguing that the government should not give money to the Catholic aid programs because they do not refer or provide abortions or birth control to young, unaccompanied minor refugees and immigrants.
That same year LifeNews also reported the ACLU filed another lawsuit against the Trinity Health Corporation, a Catholic hospital group, because its doctors refused to do abortions.
