A federal judge ruled on Monday that the Trump administration cannot block two undocumented teenagers currently in U.S. custody from seeking abortions, CNN reports.
US District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan required in her order that the two teens are allowed to be transported to an abortion provider, where they could “obtain any pregnancy related or abortion-related medical care.”
The judge said that by issuing the order, she was preserving the girls’ “constitutional right to decide whether to carry their pregnancies to term,” adding that they would otherwise suffer “irreparable injury.”
The judge agreed to stay her ruling for 24 hours pending appeal. The ruling was appealed by the Trump administration to the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court.
Both teens at issue, known as Jane Poe and Jane Roe, are 17 years old and kept in custody in undisclosed states. The American Civil Liberties Union, representing the teens, sought a temporary restraining order from the court to prohibit the federal government from blocking the teens’ access to abortion.
“Absent an immediate temporary restraining order, Ms. Roe and Ms. Poe will both be pushed further into their pregnancies, increasing the risks associated with the abortion procedure, and if the Court does not intervene, Ms. Roe and Ms. Poe will be forced to carry to term against their will,” Brigitte Amiri, an ACLU lawyer said in court papers.
The administration lawyer, however, argued that the government has a “strong and constitutionally legitimate interests in promoting its interest in life, in refusing to facilitate abortion and in not providing incentives for pregnant minors to illegally cross the border to obtain elective abortions while in federal custody.”
Regarding the judge’s Monday ruling, Amiri said it shows that “both the law and justice are on our side,” adding that the administration has not signaled any intention of abandoning “their cruel crusade to block abortion access for some of the most marginalized people in our country.”
She concluded that the ACLU will continue fighting for as long as it was necessary.
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