The latest battle over abortion rights is playing out in the nation's immigrant detention centers, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
A federal judge will hear arguments today in the case of a 17 year old pregnant illegal immigrant, who was denied access to abortion care while held in Texas detention center.
"Imagine leaving your home country, seeking freedom and safety, only to be held hostage by another government, and have someone else tell what you what you can do with your life and your body," Susan Hays, Legal Director for the group Jane's Due Process, tells Newsradio 1200 WOAI. "And then shame you and harass you and use the power of the government to force someone else's religious beliefs on you. That's what happening."
Today, the American Civil Liberties Union will be in court for an emergency hearing, asking for a temporary restraining order, allowing the migrant mom access to abortion care. Brigitte Amiri, senior staff attorney with the group's Reproductive Freedom Project, says she is not alone.
"We have uncovered a pattern of obstruction and interference at the hands of federal officials for this population," she says.
In their court papers, the group argues that the federal government is legally required to provide migrants with basic necessities, including family planning, yet they authorize religiously affiliated organizations, such as the United State Conference of Catholic Bishops, to carry out that care. The end result, they claim, is that pregnant migrants are forced into counseling regarding prenatal care, foster care or adoption.
"Defendants knowingly permit religiously affiliated grantees with religious objections to abortion and contraception to impose restrictions on unaccompanied immigrant minor’s access to these forms of reproductive healthcare," the ACLU writes in their complaints.
But Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is arguing that migrants’ constitutional rights are narrow, and providing abortion access would be a dramatic expansion. He worries that Texas could become a sanctuary state for abortions.
"No federal court has ever declared that unlawfully-present aliens with no substantial ties to this country have a constitutional right to abortion on demand,” Attorney General Paxton said. “If ‘Doe’ prevails in this case, the ruling will create a right to abortion for anyone on earth who enters the U.S. illegally. And with that right, countless others undoubtedly would follow."
In their friend-of-the-court brief, the AG argues that, if migrants with no ties to the U.S. are granted a right to an abortion, it would effectively announce that anyone on Earth has any number of constitutional rights simply by being apprehended at the border.
"If on the facts of this case Doe has a Fifth Amendment right to an abortion, it is hard to imagine why she could be denied any other constitutional rights-such as the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms."