- Jul 19, 2017
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Opinion | The Trump Administration’s Power Over a Pregnant Girl
In early September, a 17-year-old girl from Central America was apprehended trying cross the border between the United States and Mexico. After being taken to a shelter for unaccompanied minors in South Texas to await immigration proceedings, she learned she was pregnant. The girl, referred to as Jane Doe in court filings, was adamant that she wanted an abortion. Because of Texas’ parental consent law, she needed to go to court to get a judge’s permission, which she did with help from Jane’s Due Process, a nonprofit legal organization that provides representation to pregnant minors in Texas. Jane’s Due Process collected money for the procedure from local abortion funds. It was scheduled for Sept. 28, near the end of Doe’s first trimester.
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Evidently, word went down to the shelter where Doe was housed that, despite the judicial authorization she’d received, the staff was not to cooperate with her abortion. On Sept. 23, her lawyers say, she was taken to an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center, where she was forced to view an ultrasound. One of her lawyers told me that Lloyd had the shelter call Doe’s mother in her home country to tell her about the pregnancy, even though she said her mother was physically abusive. Throughout all this, Rochelle Garza, Doe’s court-appointed guardian, told me that the girl remained “unwavering in her decision to terminate the pregnancy despite the emotional abuse that she is enduring.”
A legal battle ensued. While it was fought, Garza said, the girl was placed under constant one-on-one supervision, and barred from all physical activity. When the shelter’s residents were taken on an outing to the park, Doe was made to sit on a bench while the other kids played. “They’re holding her hostage,” Amiri told me. “This is the most insane case I’ve ever worked on in my career.” (The Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees O.R.R., sent me a statement about ensuring “our country does not become an open sanctuary for taxpayer-supported abortions by minors crossing the border illegally.” It did not respond to specific questions.)
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