As illegal immigrant children surge across the southern border, the Biden administration says it’s making sure it places pregnant teens in states where they can still get abortions in the wake of this summer’s Supreme Court ruling.
Even though bed space for the kids is at a premium, the administration revealed in court documents that it is reserving some to make sure pregnant juveniles have a landing spot in a licensed facility in abortion-friendly states — even if it means other kids end up in unlicensed facilities.
The children in question are those who come to the border without parents — so-called Unaccompanied Alien Children, or UACs. Under federal law and court rulings most of them must be turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services for care while they await sponsors to pick them up.
“Pregnant children are considered particularly vulnerable children under the EIS settlement agreement, and thus settlement considerations, along with recent actions by state governments and the U.S. Supreme Court, have further influenced ORR’s decision-making so that it can keep appropriate licensed placements open and available for a pregnant child who may need access to medical care,” the administration told U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee in court filings last week.
The focus on abortion is not sitting well with Republicans.
“In a new low, even for the most pro-abortion president in U.S. history, President Biden apparently only wants pregnant minors who illegally cross our southern border to be placed in states where they can get an abortion,” said Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma Republican. “His priority seems to be increasing abortions in America, rather than stopping illegal immigration or protecting the lives of children.
“These unaccompanied kids should be safely and quickly reunited with family in their home country, not shipped to states where they can obtain an abortion, which is potentially a violation of the Hyde amendment that prohibits the use of federal funds for abortion,” Mr. Lankford told The Washington Times in a statement.
More than 116,000 UACs have been nabbed by Customs and Border Protection officers and agents in fiscal 2022, up through June. July numbers have yet to be released.
As of last Wednesday, HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which oversees the children, had 11,156 of them in its facilities. Based on historical data, about a third of those are likely to be girls.
HHS did not say how many are pregnant or how many of those have indicated they want abortions.
Peter Schey, the lawyer for the children in a class-action lawsuit in which the administration revealed its abortion focus, said the number of pregnant teens “is minuscule.”
He said that while he supports making sure they have access to abortion, it is a poor excuse for leaving other children in unlicensed facilities.
“It would be far more humane and less costly for ORR to hire additional case managers to work on promptly releasing minors to their families than paying the exorbitant costs associated with detaining thousands of minors in so-called emergency influx centers,” Mr. Schey told The Times.
Those influx centers aren’t supposed to be used except in emergencies because the care they deliver is not as good as licensed facilities. Disease, assault and poor medical care have all been reported at the emergency facilities.
Mr. Schey has been battling the administration over its decision-making in leaving licensed facility beds empty while still using unlicensed ones.
In its court filings HHS said it uses a “complicated decision-making process” to figure out where to place UACs. Part of that is the abortion contingency…
Read More: Feds send pregnant migrant teens to states where they can get abortions