Attorneys general in 19 states urged a federal court Monday to force the Trump administration to help facilitate abortions for illegal immigrant minors.
CNS News reports the state attorneys general argued to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that all women on U.S. soil have a “constitutionally-protected right” to abortion.
Signing onto the amicus brief were New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood, as well as the attorneys general of New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and the District of Columbia. Planned Parenthood, NARAL and a number of other pro-abortion groups also signed the brief.
“All women have a constitutionally-protected right to access safe and effective abortion services — including unaccompanied minors,” Underwood said. “Many of these young women have fled horrific violence, and some are pregnant as the result of rape.
“The Trump administration simply does not have the authority to force their personal views on these young women by requiring them to carry pregnancies against their will. The federal policy is unconstitutional and inhumane, and we will continue to fight it,” she said in a statement.
In 2017, the Office of Refugee Resettlement issued a new policy requiring that taxpayer-funded shelters for immigrants and refugees offer life-affirming support to women and girls 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.
Director Scott Lloyd, a Trump appointee, said the shelters may not take “any action that facilitates” an abortion for unaccompanied minors without his direct approval.
“Grantees should not be supporting abortion services … only pregnancy services and life-affirming options counseling,” Lloyd said.
In the brief, the attorneys general took issue with some of Lloyd’s statements about the policy, including that he believes “abortion is the destruction of human life.” They slammed this as his “moral” opposition to abortion when in reality it is a statement of fact. An abortion does destroy the life of a human being in the womb.
Several lawsuits arose last fall as a result of the policy, including demands from the ACLU that the Office of Refugee Resettlement help facilitate an abortion for an unaccompanied minor in Texas. “Jane Doe” aborted her 16-week unborn baby on Oct. 25, less than a day after a federal appeals court forced Trump administration officials to help facilitate the abortion.
In November, the Trump administration said the pro-abortion legal group deceived the government about when the teen’s abortion was scheduled. The administration said this prevented it from appealing the court ruling.
Then, in February, another pregnant illegal immigrant minor who possibly was entangled in the lawsuits said she no longer wanted two pro-abortion attorneys to represent her because she was choosing life for her unborn baby.
In a separate challenge, the ACLU also is suing to force the Trump administration to notify minors about their so-called right to abort their unborn babies.
The lawsuits are part of the ACLU’s larger agenda to force the government to help facilitate illegal immigrant minors’ abortions with taxpayer dollars.
