A federal judge has temporarily prevented the Trump administration from blocking pregnant unaccompanied immigrant teenagers in federal custody, or who will be in federal custody, from receiving an abortion procedure.
According to Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Office of Refugee Resettlement cannot take away the “right to make their own reproductive choices” from unaccompanied minor children.
The preliminary injunction, issued Friday, prevents Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan and other administration officials from cutting off unaccompanied immigrant teenagers’ access to abortion, counseling, medical appointments, and other maternity care.
Chutkan also issued an opinion certifying the young women as a class in a class action lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union. The group took the case to the government last year so a woman referred to in court documents as Jane Doe could receive an abortion.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia allowed Doe to receive an abortion, but the Justice Department requested the Supreme Court vacate the ruling. Since then, three other women have been added by the ACLU to the lawsuit, and the group requested that the court create a class to cover other pregnant unaccompanied immigrant teens.
In response to Chutkan’s preliminary injunction Friday, Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, said, “We are relieved that the court issued an order preventing the administration from continuing this practice while our case proceeds.”
