The Trump administration explained its position against helping an illegal immigrant abort her unborn baby in part of a previously sealed letter released Thursday.
“In this request [for an abortion], we are being asked to participate in killing a human being in our care,” the letter from Office of Refugee Resettlement Director Scott Lloyd reads. The letter makes its obvious that the Trump administration will continue to appeal court rulings allowing several illegal immigrants who are minors to obtain abortions while in the care of the Department of Human Health and Services (DHHS).
It is an error in judgement to believe “that it is possible to cure violence with further violence, and that the destruction of an unborn child’s life can in some instances be acceptable as a means to an end,” the letter says. “To decline to assist in an abortion here is to decline to participate in violence against an innocent life. She remains pregnant, but this is not the intent of our actions. Moral and criminal responsibility for the pregnancy lies with the attacker, and no one else.”
The letter’s partial disclosure follows an ongoing battle concerning two illegal immigrants, aged 17 and 19, who want the federal government to let them have abortions, the Hill reports. Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are representing the two teens — Jane Roe and Jane Poe who are 10 weeks and 22 weeks pregnant, respectively — in the court case. (RELATED: Trump Asks Supreme Court To Block Abortion For Illegal Immigrant).
The Trump administration appealed U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s decision to issue a temporary restraining order against administration officials so that they couldn’t stop the two illegal immigrants from having abortions. She also lifted a 24-hour hold on Poe’s ruling so that she can have an abortion immediately. (RELATED: Illegal Immigrant Will Likely Have Abortion After Court Documents Reveal Her True Age).
Chutkan ruled in late October that pregnant illegal immigrant Jane Doe — who was in custody in Texas — could get an abortion, according to Politico. The girl, 17, crossed the border illegally and was roughly 15 weeks pregnant when she had her abortion Oct. 25.
The ACLU plans to file a brief to ask for disclosure of the full letter.
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