Thanks for seeking justice
Today the U.S. appeals court in Washington, D.C. ruled the Trump administration must allow “Jane Doe” – a 17-year-old immigrant woman – to obtain a legal abortion.
The court’s ruling respects Jane Doe’s decision and her dignity. Now it’s time for Trump administration officials to stop forcing this young woman – and others like her – to stay pregnant when they don’t want to be.
We’ll deliver your petition signatures to the Office of Refugee Resettlement to demand they stop breaking the law by denying immigrant women safe access to abortion care. Can you add your name to join us right now?
Sign our petition right now to tell the Trump administration that it’s unconstitutional and unconscionable to force immigrant women to carry their pregnancies to term.
The fight isn’t over. The Trump administration has shown it will do everything it can to block Jane from making this decision on her own. And, unfortunately, this no-abortion policy applies to all young women in immigration custody. But the ACLU will continue to fight for justice for all Janes. You can go on this page here to get advice on abortion and get more info.
Read more details on the case and the ACLU’s involvement in defending “Jane Doe” and suing Scott Lloyd – Trump’s Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement – below.
Any threat to reproductive rights in this country is a threat to all of our rights.
Thanks for all you do,
Louise Melling
Deputy Legal Director
The Trump administration’s Office of Refugee Resettlement – and its anti-choice director, Scott Lloyd – is illegally and outrageously blocking a 17-year-old woman, “Jane Doe,” from obtaining an abortion she desires and has the right to acquire.
Make your voice heard – tell the federal government we want justice for Jane and all immigrant youth in government custody.
We took the government to court this week, and the judge agreed with us – quickly and decisively – and ordered the government to allow Jane to have her abortion. But then the Trump administration appealed. And now, a court has delayed Jane’s access to care even longer, pushing her even further into a pregnancy she decided to end weeks ago.
This fight is far from over. The only way we’re going to get Lloyd and the Trump administration to stop denying these young people their basic human rights is to expose their illegal actions.
Tell Scott Lloyd and the Office of Refugee Resettlement to stop breaking the law and stop denying immigrant women their constitutional right to safe abortion care.
It’s illegal to force a young woman to carry her pregnancy to term against her will. Period.
Not only did government officials block Jane from her healthcare appointments for a safe abortion, they forced her to go to a religiously-affiliated “crisis pregnancy center” where she received coercive counseling and an invasive, unnecessary ultrasound performed on her by non-medical staff against her will.
Jane Doe’s story is far from an isolated incident.
In another case, a young woman was forcibly sent to an emergency room after she’d taken an abortion pill to try to prevent her from completing her abortion. In yet another case, a senior U.S. government official was personally sent to visit a young woman who was seeking an abortion to attempt to talk her out of her decision.
And those are just some of the cases we know.
Government officials don’t have free reign to force their ideology and religious views onto undocumented youth. But this will only stop if we shine light on and stand up to illegal actions, in the courtroom and on the streets.
Tell Director Lloyd and the Office of Refugee Resettlement to stop illegally blocking safe abortion care for young immigrant women.
Thanks for seeking justice,
Louise Melling
Deputy Legal Director
MISSION STATEMENT OF ACLU:
The ACLU TODAY
For nearly 100 years, the ACLU has been our nation’s guardian of liberty, working in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
Whether it’s achieving full equality for LGBT people, establishing new privacy protections for our digital age of widespread government surveillance, ending mass incarceration, or preserving the right to vote or the right to have an abortion, the ACLU takes up the toughest civil liberties cases and issues to defend all people from government abuse and overreach.
With more than 2 million members, activists, and supporters, the ACLU is a nationwide organization that fights tirelessly in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C., to safeguard everyone’s rights.
IN THE BEGINNING
“So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we’ll be called a democracy.” — ACLU founder Roger Baldwin
When a roomful of civil liberties activists — led by Roger Baldwin, Crystal Eastman, and Albert DeSilver — formed the ACLU in 1920, the Supreme Court had yet to uphold a single free speech claim. Activists languished in jail for distributing anti-war literature. State-sanctioned violence against African-Americans was routine. Women won the right to vote only in August of that year. And constitutional rights for LGBT people were unthinkable.
The ACLU was founded to ensure the promise of the Bill of Rights and to expand its reach to people historically denied its protections. In our first year, we fought the harassment and deportation of immigrants whose activism put them at odds with the authorities. In 1939, we won in the Supreme Court the right for unions to organize. We stood almost alone in 1942 in denouncing our government’s round-up and internment in concentration camps of more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans. And at times in our history when frightened civilians have been willing to give up some of their freedoms and rights in the name of national security, the ACLU has been the bulwark for liberty.
WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO
The ACLU is frequently asked to explain its defense of certain people or groups — particularly controversial and unpopular entities such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Nation of Islam, and the National Socialist Party of America. We do not defend them because we agree with them. Rather we defend their right to free expression and free assembly.
Historically, the people whose opinions are the most controversial or extreme are the people whose rights are most often threatened. Once the government has the power to violate one person’s rights, it can use that power against everyone. We work to stop the erosion of civil liberties before it’s too late.
HOW WE DO IT
We have grown from a roomful of civil libertarians to more than 1 million members, activists, and supporters across the country. The ACLU is now a nationwide organization with a 50-state network of staffed affiliate offices filing cases in both state and federal courts. We appear before the Supreme Court more than any other organization except the Department of Justice.
In addition, we work to change policy as well as hearts and minds. Our Washington Legislative Office lobbies Congress to pass bills that advance or defend civil liberties and defeat those that do not, our affiliates work in state houses across the country to do the same, and we use strategic communications to engage supporters on the most pressing civil liberties issues of our time. The defense of America’s core liberties cannot rely on the courts alone. Politics and public opinion matter too.
The ACLU is nonprofit and nonpartisan. We do not receive any government funding. Member dues as well as contributions and grants from private foundations and individuals pay for the work we do.
If you wish to join the ACLU, or you believe your civil liberties have been violated, contact ACLU headquarters (https://www.aclu.org/contact-us) or your local ACLU (https://www.aclu.org/affiliates).
Filed under: General Problems
REALLY???!!!!!WHERE THE HELL ARE THEY FOR US!!!!I SEND THEM EMAILS EVERYDAY,,,OF OUR TORTUREOUS GENOCIDE AND THE ACLU CHOOSES SO FAR TO DO NOTHING!!!!!maryw
I have tried, in the past, to have the ACLU pennsylvania region help me with a different matter. I spoke with a rep.and their response was they were understaffed and had to choose carefully, what issues to represent.
I will also try to contact them, again. Everyone experiencing these unlawful torturous acts against chronic pain patients should call and flood offices across the nation.
This should bring attention to this outrageous nonsense we are continuing to struggle thru.
It is a travesty the lengths these agencies are going to and dismissing us, persons who need and daily depend on opiate analgesics. It’s like we are invisible. Stay strong and be LOUD.
exactly Juliette,,,keep callen ,,keep sending emails,articles of torture,,,w/this marshal law on our medicine,,were screw’d!!!!maryw