An illegal immigrant held under federal protection has indicated that lawyers representing her have pressured her to abort the child she is carrying.
The illegal immigrant charged that her guardians and legal attorneys, Rochelle Garza and Myles Garza, gave her documents Feb. 6 with information about seeking an abortion, according to recently court papers. The unnamed illegal minor, who is under the protection of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, did not want an abortion.
The Garzas have represented other illegal immigrant minors seeking abortions.
The young woman’s handwritten note indicated she didn’t want an abortion and wished to be represented by a different set of attorneys, Fox News reported.
“At this time I have changed my decision to have an abortion,” the young woman said in the statement, according to the court filing.
“The people I saw yesterday were lawyers that made me sign, I … do not need their help because I do not want to have an abortion,” she wrote.
The Supreme Court was scheduled to hear the complaint in a closed-door conference Friday.
The woman’s statement follows the Justice Department’s complaint to the Supreme Court in November, alleging that the department had been “misled” by the Garzas. The Justice Department charged that the two lawyers had deceived government attorneys by scheduling an abortion at night, only hours before the high court was set to review the case.
The young woman’s statement also comes after the Department of Health and Human Services released another minor illegal immigrant, identified by the pseudonym “Jane Moe,” so that she could have an abortion in January.
The department’s Office of Refugee Resettlement sought to prevent Moe from obtaining an abortion, but the American Civil Liberties Union stepped in, asking the District of Columbia’s U.S. District Court to grant a temporary restraining order so that she could abort her child, according to The Hill.
Moe’s release followed an ongoing battle concerning two illegal immigrants, aged 17 and 19, who asked the federal government to let them have abortions, The Hill reported in December. ACLU lawyers represented the two teens—Jane Roe and Jane Poe, who were 10 weeks and 22 weeks pregnant, respectively—in court.
President Donald Trump’s administration appealed a decision by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to issue a temporary restraining order against federal officials. The Trump administration tried to prevent the two illegal immigrants from having abortions, but was unsuccessful.
Chutkan also ruled in late October that pregnant illegal immigrant “Jane Doe”—who was in custody in Texas— could get an abortion, Politico reported. The girl, 17, crossed the border illegally and was roughly 15 weeks pregnant when she had her abortion Oct. 25.
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