Teenage Refugee Finally Gets ICE's Damn Hands Off Her Body

IS THIS WHAT THEY MEAN BY CULTURE OF LIFE?

In the past six weeks, Immigration officials in Texas have:

• Detained a pregnant 17-year-old girl.

• Forced her to petition a Texas judge to waive the parental notification requirement.

• Forced her to go to federal court four times to assert her Constitutional right to access abortion.

• Violated her privacy by telling her parents that she was pregnant, even though they had beaten her sister badly enough to cause a miscarriage.

• Subjected her to unwanted religious counseling at a crisis pregnancy center.

• Promised to release her to an appropriate sponsor, then rejected both sponsors presented by her family.

• Locked her up and refused to allow her court appointed guardian ad litem to take her to have an abortion.

• Argued in court that having to supervise her health after an abortion paid for by outside funds was an undue burden on the detention center.

•  Doubled the risk, pain and duration of the abortion procedure by delaying it until the second trimester.

• Publicized personal and medical details of a minor to burnish their "pro-life" credentials.

• All while seeking to have her deported.

BECAUSE ALL LIFE IS SACRED.

Yesterday a DC Circuit Court ruled that Texas authorities must permit the girl to have an abortion. The ACLU immediately petitioned the District Court to expedite the process -- ICE has been dragging the case out trying to force the girl past the 20-week threshold when abortion becomes illegal in Texas. The Court ordered ICE to release the girl for pre-abortion "counseling" last night. This morning, after six weeks of fighting, she was finally allowed to terminate the pregnacy, heading off any potential appeal to the Supreme Court by ICE. Here is her statement.

The undocumented pregnant teen being prevented from getting an abortion by the Trump administration just obtained an abortion. Here is her statement:  pic.twitter.com/scWIrEX008 

— Ema O'Connor (@o_ema) October 25, 2017