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Trump Asks Supreme Court To Block Abortion For Illegal Immigrant

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Grace Carr Reporter
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President Trump asked the Supreme Court to stop an illegal immigrant from getting an abortion Tuesday.

The administration asked the court to delay a decision for two weeks regarding one of two 17-year-old illegal immigrants in custody seeking an abortion. The administration is asking the court to delay its decision regarding whether Jane Roe can have an abortion so that it can properly investigate the private sponsor funding her abortion, the Hill reports.

While a private sponsor would cover the cost of Roe’s abortion, tax-payer dollars would still have to foot the cost of transportation to and from the detention facility and abortion clinic, as well as any other costs associated with the procedure not covered by the sponsor. As of 2012, the average cost of a surgical abortion at 10 weeks was $480.

Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are representing the two teens — Jane Roe and Jane Poe who are 10 weeks and 22 weeks pregnant, respectively — in the court case.

The Trump administration’s appeal comes after U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a temporary restraining order against administration officials Monday so that they could not stop the two illegal immigrants from having abortions. She also lifted a 24-hour hold on Poe’s ruling so that she can have an abortion immediately, given that the federal government does not appeal a ruling on her case as well.

The government is not seeking to prevent a decision regarding Poe’s abortion because the the two teenagers’ cases differ substantially according to the administration’s statements. (RELATED: More Illegal Immigrant Teenagers Ask The Federal Government For Abortions).

The teens’ lawyers argue it would be unconstitutional to prevent the illegal immigrants from getting abortions, saying it takes away their right about whether they want to become parents the Washington Post reported. “We’ve already stopped the Trump administration from blocking one young woman’s abortion,” Brigitte Amiri, a senior ACLU staff attorney, said in a statement. “It’s unreal that the federal government is trying to force more young women to continue their pregnancies against their will.”

 The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) “has 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,” said a federal government defense attorney on Monday.

Chutkan ruled in late October that pregnant illegal immigrant Jane Doe — who was in custody in Texas — could get an abortion, according to Politico. The girl, 17, crossed the border illegally and was roughly 15 weeks pregnant when she had her abortion on Oct. 25. (RELATED: JANE DOE: ‘I FEEL GOOD’ About Decision To Get Abortion)

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