WASHINGTON -- A teenage illegal alien in federal custody ended her pregnancy Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after a judge's order forced the government to allow the 17-year-old to be promptly transferred to an abortion facility.
The announcement from the teenager's attorneys puts an end to a case that raised political questions and highlighted the administration's new policy of refusing to "facilitate" abortions for unaccompanied minors.
The teenager, identified only as Jane Doe in court papers, is being held in Texas for illegally entering the country. She was nearly 16 weeks pregnant at the time of her abortion. Texas law bans most abortions after 20 weeks.
"Justice prevailed today for Jane Doe. But make no mistake about it, the administration's efforts to interfere in women's decisions won't stop with Jane," said Brigitte Amiri, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project who represented the teen.
The teenager's procedure came after a weekslong legal battle that moved swiftly through the courts, with judges issuing contradictory rulings.
On Tuesday, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed a three-judge panel of the same court without first holding oral argument. The panel decision would have postponed the abortion.
Instead, the D.C. Circuit's 6-3 ruling sent the case back to a judge, who hours later ordered the government to "promptly and without delay" transport the teen to a Texas abortion provider.
In a statement provided Wednesday by the ACLU, the teenager said she knew immediately after learning of her pregnancy that she was "not ready to be a parent."
The government-funded shelter, her statement said, would not allow her to get an abortion.
"Instead, they made me see a doctor that tried to convince me not to abort and to look at sonograms. People I don't even know are trying to make me change my mind. I made my decision and that is between me and God. Through all of this, I have never changed my mind."
It was not immediately clear where the abortion was performed, but her attorneys said last week that she had already received the counseling that Texas law requires at least 24 hours in advance of an abortion.
The D.C. Circuit's ruling Tuesday was opposed by the court's three active judges nominated to the bench by Republican presidents. Judge Brett Kavanaugh said the majority has "badly erred" and created a new right for illegal alien minors in custody to "immediate abortion on demand."
Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson went further in a separate dissent, finding that the teenager has no constitutional right to an elective abortion.
"To conclude otherwise rewards lawlessness and erases the fundamental difference between citizenship and illegal presence in our country," she wrote.
Lawyers for the teenager asked the full appeals court to rehear her case after a divided panel gave the Department of Health and Human Services until Oct. 31 to find a sponsor to take custody of the girl.
Amiri said the girl's court-appointed guardian was thrilled to tell her that she could terminate her pregnancy after the full appeals court order.
"We should never have had to go all the way to a full appellate court to say what we know is the law: that the government can't ban abortion for anybody," Amiri said.
Democratic lawmakers have demanded answers from Health and Human Services acting Secretary Eric Hargan about why the Trump administration quietly changed federal policy to deny access to abortions for minors in custody.
Scott Lloyd, director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the Health and Human Services agency that oversees the minors, said in a March email that government-funded shelters caring for the minors "should not be supporting abortion services pre- or post-release; only pregnancy services and life-affirming options counseling."
A Section on 10/26/2017