The Supreme Court just dealt another blow to abortion proponents – this time, to those who say the federal government must facilitate abortions for illegal alien teens being held in immigration detention facilities.
Less than a week after SCOTUS refused to hear a challenge to an Arkansas law that upped the health care standards for abortion providers, the highest court in the land threw out a lower court ruling mandating that the federal government allow illegal alien women – including minors – to obtain abortions while being held in ICE custody.
It all started last year when the ACLU took up the case of a 17-year-old illegal alien girl being held in an ICE detention facility who said she wanted to have an abortion. A U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in October that the government couldn’t prevent the young woman from obtaining an abortion – despite her being in the country illegally. Following that ruling, abortion proponents shuffled the young lady to the nearest abortion clinic and ended her pregnancy.
That action set a bad precedent for several reasons.
Firstly, the federal government argued that allowing illegal aliens to obtain abortions while being held for immigration violations flew in the face of protections that bar taxpayer funds from facilitating abortions. Pro-lifers also argued that such a ruling would establish the United States as an abortion destination for illegal aliens unable to obtain legal abortions in their Latin American home countries, where abortion is largely outlawed.
Lawyers for the Trump administration also argued the ACLU rushed the woman off to an abortion clinic before the government could appeal the case to a higher court.
While SCOTUS did throw out the lower court’s ruling on the girl’s case – which, seeing as she’d already had the abortion, didn’t do much to save her child – the court didn’t rule on the underlying issue, meaning the path is clear for a future legal battle over the issue of illegal alien abortions.
But for now, at least, it looks like the lower court’s ruling that undocumented minors can easily obtain abortions if they can just get to the U.S. is far from carved in stone.
(Cover Photo: Phil Roeder)