The Trump administration won’t let up on its mission to shame a young girl’s choice to have an abortion.
Jane Doe, an undocumented minor in Texas, struggled for a month to access abortion care after the Office of Refugee Resettlement, led by an anti-choice advocate, blocked her from attending clinic appointments, a move heavily supported by Attorney General Ken Paxton. In a series of back-and-forth rulings, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals finally granted Doe her constitutional right to abortion on Oct. 24, legally obtained through judicial bypass and aided by local nonprofit Jane’s Due Process.
But Trump’s defeated DOJ is looking for retribution, and on Nov. 3 filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court requesting a disciplining of her ACLU attorneys. In what is being considered an unusual and “extraordinary” filing, the DOJ alleges that Doe’s lawyers misled the government about the timing of her abortion and are asking the court to vacate the D.C. Circuit court ruling, part of a larger strategy to block undocumented minors in federal custody from obtaining abortion care.
“This administration has gone to astounding lengths to block this young woman from getting an abortion. Now, because they were unable to stop her, they are raising baseless questions about our conduct,” said ACLU Legal Director David Cole. “Our lawyers acted in the best interest of our client and in full compliance with the court orders and federal and Texas law. That government lawyers failed to seek judicial review quickly enough is their fault, not ours.”
This article appears in November 17 • 2017 and November 10 • 2017.