The Department of Health and Human Services division responsible for the care of undocumented minors refused to allow her to attend multiple abortion appointments, according to court documents. | John Shinkle/POLITICO Trump administration appeals abortion ruling The Texas attorney general’s office, which sides with the Trump administration, has also indicated it will continue to fight the case.

The Trump administration is appealing a judge's order requiring that the government allow an undocumented pregnant minor in a federally funded Texas shelter receive an abortion.

The temporary restraining order, issued by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan Wednesday evening, said the federal government must allow the unnamed 17-year-old girl, who is about 15 weeks pregnant, to receive the abortion within days.


The administration Wednesday night appealed the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The girl’s initial appointment with an abortion provider, which under Texas law must occur at least 24 hours before the procedure takes place, is scheduled for Thursday morning.

Chutkan, an Obama appointee, has yet to decide on a separate request for a permanent injunction to block the administration’s overall policy of preventing undocumented pregnant minors in federally funded shelters from receiving abortions. During oral arguments, Chutkan had dismissed the administration's argument that undocumented minors lack constitutional rights such as abortion rights.

HHS’ Administration for Children and Families, a division that oversees the care of undocumented minors in federally funded shelters, said Wednesday night the judge’s ruling “sets a dangerous precedent by opening our borders to any illegal children seeking taxpayer-supported, elective abortions.”

The statement says the judge’s order “overrides the policies and procedures” of the department and that the administration “will continue to provide [children in their care] with excellent health care and protect their well-being in all our facilities.”

The Texas attorney general’s office, which sides with the Trump administration, has also indicated it will continue to fight the case.

Lawyers for the girl, known only as Jane Doe in court filings, have filed a separate case in the Southern District Court of Texas asking that she be removed from the Brownsville shelter where she is being held, arguing that it is denying her medical care and emotionally abusing her.

The girl received judicial permission to have an abortion without parental consent and obtained private funds to pay for it, but her lawyers say that the shelter, under orders from the administration, refused to release her for previous appointments. Instead, they took her to a crisis pregnancy center to counsel her against having the abortion and called her mother in Central America to tell her she was pregnant.

Brigitte Amiri, a lawyer for the ACLU who represented the girl’s case in the federal court on Wednesday, said she is concerned "about the lengths that the federal government is willing to go to prevent Jane Doe from getting her abortion."

She said the appeal was a tactic to delay the case until the girl could no longer legally have an abortion. Under Texas law, abortion is banned in most cases after 20 weeks.