Appeals court reverses ruling in teen immigrant abortion case

A federal appeals court in Washington on Monday reversed its Friday ruling in a case involving a pregnant teen immigrant who wants to get an abortion. The latest ruling orders the government to take the girl, who is about 16 weeks pregnant, to an abortion center or allow someone else to, without making her find a permanent sponsor. On Friday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled the government should not be forced to facilitate the abortion but should find a way to release her to a third party who could take her to an abortion center. Immigration officials placed the 17-year-old, who has not been identified, in a detention center in Texas after she crossed into the country illegally. She did not know she was pregnant at the time. Government lawyers argued “the government is entitled to favor childbirth” and should not be forced to facilitate abortions. A Health and Human Services Department official who oversees detention centers for unaccompanied minors told a co-worker that facilities getting government funding “should not be supporting abortion services.”