Just days after yet another pregnant, undocumented teenager accused the Trump administration of blocking her from getting an abortion, the administration released the teen from federal custody.
The teenager, known only as “Jane Moe” in court records, filed paperwork Thursday alleging that the Office of Refugee Resettlement was refusing to allow her to get an abortion. The Office oversees all minors who enter the country without their parents and without authorization.
In response, the Trump administration said Friday that it planned to release Moe out of its custody and into the care of a sponsor, which would allow her to get an abortion. The plan had been to release her by Friday, Jan. 26.
Instead, Moe was freed Sunday.
“While we are relieved that Jane Moe is reunited with her sponsor, the government blocked her from her abortion for more than two weeks, before deliberately moving her out of their custody only when we filed to take them to court,” Brigitte Amiri, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project, said in a statement. (The ACLU represented Moe.) “We continue to pursue all avenues to ensure that no other young woman like her is forced to continue a pregnancy against her will for purely political reasons.”
