For the fourth time, the Trump administration is trying to force an undocumented minor to remain pregnant against her will. The fourth time.
The woman, known to the court as Jane Moe, has requested an abortion but has been prevented from getting one by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, an office within the Department of Health and Human Services. [...]
According to court documents, Moe is a 17-year-old unaccompanied immigrant minor living in a government-funded shelter. Moe is in her second trimester of pregnancy.
The ACLU is on the case, having in the three previous cases won the young women’s freedom to make their own reproductive decisions. In one of those cases, Jane Poe was pregnant after being raped in her home country, but Scott Lloyd, Trump’s head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, still tried to force her to carry the pregnancy. In the current case:
Jane Moe, who is believed to be in her second trimester of pregnancy, made clear her desire to terminate her pregnancy two weeks ago. Private funds are available to pay for her abortion, and staff at the shelter where she is being held are willing to accompany Ms. Moe to a clinic, but as in three prior cases, the government is refusing to allow it.
The clock is ticking very fast if she’s in her second trimester. And as the ACLU makes clear, the government does not have to do anything to facilitate her getting an abortion beyond not preventing her from doing so. But the unsavory urge to control women’s bodies and futures is strong with these people—Trump policy even required Moe to visit a crisis pregnancy center to be bullied by anti-abortion fanatics.