Texas Blocks Detained Undocumented Woman's Abortion Access

AUSTIN, TX — The dual touchstone issues in Texas of abortion rights and the incarceration of undocumented immigrants in jail-like facilities have taken center stage in the Lone Star State, where the attorney general is seeking to deny a young undocumented woman the right to end her pregnancy.

A 17-year-old dubbed "Jane Doe" in court filings — an unaccompanied young woman currently in custody after crossing into Texas from Mexico following apprehension at the border — is seeking an abortion. She's believed to be up to 14 weeks pregnant in a state where the Republican legislative majority has passed draconian laws designed to deter abortions.

Given that "right to life" mix of theology-laced lawmaking, Attorney General Ken Paxton wants to block the detained woman from terminating her pregnancy. On Tuesday, Paxton filed a friend-of-the-court brief with a U.S. District Court in San Francisco "...in defense of the federal government’s right to deny access to abortion services to an unlawfully-present minor alien in Texas," Paxton wrote in a press advisory.

Referring to the pregnant woman as an "unlawfully-present alien," Paxton noted the immigrant entered the U.S. without her parents, and is currently in a "shelter" funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Brownsville, Texas, not far from the Texas-Mexico border.

“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,” 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. Texas must not become a sanctuary state for abortions.”

The term "sanctuary" also is interchangeably referenced in alluding to a GOP-led effort throughout Texas (and elsewhere) to end so-called "sanctuary cities" perceived as being overly welcome to undocumented immigrants. Under the Trump administration, efforts to deport undocumented immigrants — even those without criminal records, which Immigration Customs and Enforcement officials originally said would be targeted in the sweeps — have been heightened.

The multi-faceted case of the pregnant undocumented woman being held in a detention facility has yielded a new crossroads in Republican priorities in Texas, a new legal crossroads where the zeal to deport undocumented immigrants is seemingly at odds with Paxton's current efforts to preserve the fetus of a women he deems an "unlawfully present alien."

In defending his position, however, Paxton seems to see no contradiction in holding firm to the two seemingly contradictory positions that is sometimes the hallmark of Texas law-crafting contingent on conservative principles — in this case seeking deportation of an undocumented immigrant while holding sway over her medical decisions. Instead, he told the court that “Texas has a legitimate and substantial interest in preserving and promoting fetal life, as well as an interest in promoting respect for human life at all stages in a pregnancy.”

The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking an emergency court order authorizing the woman's access to abortion services after the Office of Refugee Resettlement blocked her from attending a pre-abortion medical appointment.

The limits of geography haven't prevented other states hundreds of miles away to add their voices as "friends of the court" to block the woman's abortion. Like-minded officials in Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Carolina have joined Texas on the amicus brief — legal documents filed by non-litigants with a strong interest in a subject matter seeking to provide relevant, additional arguments the court might wish to consider in rendering its decision.

To view the amicus brief, click here.

>>> Photo of Attorney General Ken Paxton via State of Texas