September, 29 2020, 12:00am EDT
As a Result of ACLU Litigation, Trump Administration Ends Policy Prohibiting Immigrant Minors From Accessing Abortion
Three years after the ACLU first challenged the policy in court, the Office of Refugee Resettlement changes its policy to ensure young people in its custody will not be blocked from accessing abortion.
WASHINGTON
The Trump administration's Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) issued a new policy today clarifying that ORR and ORR-funded shelters cannot block or interfere with unaccompanied immigrant minors' access to confidential reproductive health care, including abortion. The change comes after three years of litigation from the American Civil Liberties Union.
Among other changes, the new policy instructs ORR and shelter staff that: Federal staff and ORR-funded shelter staff are prohibited from obstructing or interfering with immigrants' access to non-directive counseling, abortion counseling, state judicial bypass proceedings, and abortion itself; and from communicating information about a minor's pregnancy or their decision to have an abortion without their consent (with very narrow exceptions). The official policy change issued by federal government largely tracks with the terms of the injunction the ACLU won in court. As a result, the parties are dismissing the case.
"After three years of battling in court alongside brave young women, we are relieved that the government finally abandoned its attempts to block young people in its custody from accessing abortion," said Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. "Today's policy change rights one of the wrongs this administration has committed against immigrants in detention, but their health and safety are still very much at stake. To protect reproductive freedom for all, we still have a fight ahead of us--including ensuring that Roe v. Wade remains the law of the land."
The ACLU first sued on behalf of Jane Doe, a then 17-year-old Central American immigrant in 2017. The suit came after the organization Jane's Due Process and other groups working with young immigrants discovered that ORR, which has custody over immigrants under age 18 who come to the country without parents, had instituted a policy of blocking pregnant young people in its care from accessing abortion care and trying to coerce them to carry pregnancies to term against their will.
When Jane found out she was pregnant after being placed in a government-funded shelter, she immediately asked for an abortion. Federal officials responded by ordering the shelter to block her access to abortion care and forced her to receive counseling at a religiously affiliated "crisis pregnancy center." Officials also notified Jane's family members of her pregnancy, without her consent and even though she had already obtained a court order permitting her to make her own medical decisions without involving her parents. Jane took the administration to court, fighting back to protect her own right to reproductive freedom and the rights of a class of hundreds of other young people who were also subject to ORR's anti-abortion policy. After a protracted legal battle, Jane won a court order blocking ORR from obstructing all pregnant immigrant minors in its custody from making their own decisions about their pregnancies.
In response to this news, Jane Doe issued the following response:
"After three years of waiting, I am so glad to know that what happened to me will never happen to anyone else. The decision to have an abortion is personal and belongs to each individual--no one should be shamed for making the right decision for themselves or blocked from doing so. I came to this country to make a better life for myself, and I am working on a building a life that I can be proud of. I am happy to know that my fight means that other young women like me will be able to make the decision about whether to become a parent for themselves."
Attorneys on the case include Amiri, Meagan Burrows, Jennifer Dalven, Lindsey Kaley, and Daniel Mach of the ACLU; Arthur Spitzer and Scott Michelman of the ACLU of the District of Columbia; Melissa Goodman of the ACLU of Southern California; and Elizabeth Gill of the ACLU of Northern California.
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
(212) 549-2666LATEST NEWS
'Out-of-Step With American Values': Newsom Vetoes Key Labor Bills
The California governor on Saturday rejected bills that would have given unemployment insurance to striking workers and OSHA protections to domestic employees.
Oct 01, 2023
California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed too important pieces of labor rights' legislation on Saturday: one that would have given unemployment insurance to striking workers and another that would have extended protections to domestic employees.
Newsom's vetoes come as both California and the nation have seen a number of high profile strikes this year, including by Hollywood writers and actors.
"This veto tips the scales further in favor of corporations and CEOs and punishes workers who exercise their fundamental right to strike," California Labor Federation leader Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher said in a statement. "At a time when public support of unions and strikes are at an all-time high, this veto is out-of-step with American values."
Senate Bill 799, which passed in September, would have offered unemployment insurance to workers on strike for 14 days or more. It came while both the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) were out on strike in the first writer and actor double-feature work stoppage in 60 years.
In a statement, Newsom said he was vetoing the bill for economic reasons, arguing that the state's unemployment insurance had been governed by the same financial structure since the 1980s, was "vulnerable to insolvency," and already expected to be almost $20 billion in debt by the end of the year.
"Now is not the time to increase costs or incur this sizable debt," Newsom said.
However, The Sacramento Beepointed out that Newsom's veto might have been made politically easier by the fact that the WGA ended its strike Wednesday after reaching a tentative deal with the studios.
Democratic State Sen. Anthony Portantino, who introduced the bill, said he thought the summer's labor actions only showed how necessary the bill was.
"I am disappointed in the Governor's veto," he tweeted. But he said the fight wasn't over.
"The need continues and so will efforts to make this law in CA," he said.
Also on Saturday, Newsom delivered another blow to the state labor movement when he vetoed SB 686 to give domestic workers protections under the state's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
"I'm deeply disappointed that the governor doesn't recognize the inherent worth and dignity of those women who care for our homes and families by vetoeing SB 686," tweeted the bill's author Sen. MarÃa Elena Durazo. "That measure would've insured that domestic workers have the same occupational health and safety protections as others."
This is the second time that Newsom has vetoed a Durazo bill along similar lines, the Los Angeles Timesreported. The last was in 2020.
Newsom argued then and now that it is not possible to regulate private homes like businesses. For example, the bill would have required homes that asked cleaners to use bleach to provide eyewash stations.
"I am particularly concerned given that approximately 44% of the households that employ domestic workers are low-income themselves, that this bill creates severe cost burdens and penalties for many people who cannot afford them," he wrote in his veto message.
The bill was backed by the California Domestic Workers Coalition and immigrant rights groups like the Instituto de Education Popular del Sur de California.
Nancy Zuniga, a program manager for that group and a supporter of the bill, said she was inspired by her mother who is still cleaning homes at 63, though Zuniga hopes she can retire.
"If we don’t protect domestic workers, what condition will she be in when she reaches that moment?" she asked the LA Times. "A lot of them will do this until they pass."
According to a 2020 report from the University of California, Los Angeles, 85% of domestic workers live with muscular and skeletal injuries.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Meet the Needs of People': CBPP Pres. Parrott Tells Congress How to Avoid the Next Shutdown Showdown
"In divided government, appropriations bills must be bipartisan to pass," Sharon Parrott said, adding that the House must "shift its approach."
Oct 01, 2023
With a government shutdown narrowly avoided hours from the midnight Sunday deadline, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities president Sharon Parrott had advice for how lawmakers could move forward.
"With a stopgap measure in place, Congress needs to pass funding bills that meet the needs of people, communities, and the economy and eschew cuts already rejected in the debt ceiling agreement," Parrott wrote Saturday on the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
Parrott noted that the House was only able to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government temporarily funded Saturday when Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) abandoned attempts to pass partisan spending bills and instead pivoted to a bipartisan, clean CR with no additional social spending cuts or right-wing policies tacked on.
"They shouldn't repeat this mistake as Congress moves to complete full-year funding bills that meet the nation's needs."
"In divided government, appropriations bills must be bipartisan to pass," Parrott continued Saturday. "That's how the Senate has crafted funding bills this year, and today's House CR vote shows it is the only path forward. But that means the House needs to shift its approach."
In an August report, David Reich of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) observed that the House appropriations bills up until that point had been passed along partisan lines, with Republicans including steeper cuts to non-military spending than those negotiated in the debt ceiling agreement, rolling back Inflation Reduction Act funding earmarked for addressing the climate crisis and modernizing the Internal Revenue Service, and tacked on riders attacking LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, and reproductive freedom.
"The House's sharply partisan approach is likely to make it harder to reach an agreement on final funding bills," he predicted accurately.
Now that the House has passed a temporary clean CR, Parrott urged Republicans to learn from the experience.
"It took House Republicans too long to abandon their partisan approach of deep cuts and controversial riders in a CR," Parrott said. "They shouldn't repeat this mistake as Congress moves to complete full-year funding bills that meet the nation's needs."
If they return to pushing cuts and poison pills, she warned, "that would only waste more time and risk more shutdown drama."
Whether House Republicans will heed her advice remains to be seen. As of Sunday, most of the talk within the party revolved around whether or not the far-right flank would challenge McCarthy's speakership over Saturday's compromise.
Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) toldABC News' This Week that he planned to file a motion in the coming week to remove McCarthy.
"I am relentless and I will continue pursue this objective," Gaetz said.
In response, McCarthy told Gaetz to "Bring it on" when speaking withCBS's Face the Nation.
"Let's get over with it and let's start governing," he said.
In a Sunday appearance on CNN's State of the Union, however, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questioned the Republicans' ability to do that.
"The Republican Party right now is completely out of step with the American people," she said, observing that even self-described moderates had voted for spending bills that would cut funding for low-income schools by 80%.
"This is not a moderate party, period," she said. "There are not moderates in the Republican Party."
As a shutdown loomed, She said the party had "run around the House like a Roomba until they found a door that House Democrats opened."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'If We Elect Clowns, We Get a Circus': Congress Narrowly Avoids Shutdown, For Now
Despite Saturday's reprieve, Sen. John Fetterman warned that "pushing the snooze button solves nothing, because these same losers will try to pull the same shit in 45 days."
Sep 30, 2023
A government shutdown was averted Saturday night after the Senate voted 89 to 9 to approve a stopgap spending measure passed by the House of Representatives that afternoon.
The agreement funds the government for 45 days and includes an additional $16 billion in disaster funding as New York City mops up from flash flooding following an extreme rain storm. It does not include aid for Ukraine.
"It has been a day full of twists and turns, but the American people can breathe a sigh of relief," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor. "There will be no government shutdown."
"This is not entertainment, it’s governance. We must not allow the Freedom Caucus to turn our government into The Steve Wilkos Show."
The bill now heads to President Joe Biden for his signature.
"This is good news for the American people," Biden said in a statement. "But I want to be clear: We never should have been in this position in the first place."
Biden criticized far-right Republicans in the House for demanding cuts beyond what the president had negotiated with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in a deal that progressives had already criticized for slashing programs for needy Americans and pushing through the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline.
"They failed," Biden said of the far-right bloc.
MoveOn executive director Rahna Epting pointed out on social media that "this entire crisis was a GOP manufactured one."
"The Republican controlled House of Reps couldn’t get their act together, and their endless infighting only transpired into bare minimum alignment at the 11th hour," Epting said.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) celebrated the fact that the far-right bid to enshrine even steeper cuts to the social safety net did not succeed.
"I’m delighted that Congress was able to avoid a painful and unnecessary shutdown," he tweeted. "I'm also pleased that programs working families need were not cut and that there was a good increase in funds for disaster relief which will help Vermonters rebuild from July’s terrible flooding."
Sen John Fetterman (D-Pa.), however, pointed out that the Republicans could force a similar crisis again on November 17 when the stopgap agreement expires.
"I voted at 8:30 pm on a Saturday night, that’s my job. But the American people should never have to worry about their government shutting down," Fetterman posted on social media. "Pushing the snooze button solves nothing, because these same losers will try to pull the same shit in 45 days."
"I voted yes tonight to keep the government open, but I’m done normalizing this dysfunction," he continued. "This is not entertainment, it’s governance. We must not allow the Freedom Caucus to turn our government into The Steve Wilkos Show."
Epting also expressed concern about what would happen when the deal expired.
"We do this all over again in 45 days, and Republicans will shut the government down then," Epting said. "This likely leads to more instability and extremism in the House as the far right will try to remove McCarthy over this. If we elect clowns, we get a circus."
Before the larger budget fight, Congress is now poised to take up the question of additional funding for Ukraine, something Biden, Schumer, and Sanders all flagged as a priority.
House Democratic leadership also said they expected a House vote on Ukraine funding soon in a statement reported by Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular
Independent, nonprofit journalism needs your help.
Please Pitch In
Today!
Today!