Prospects ebb for high court fight over immigrant’s abortion

WASHINGTON – A potential Supreme Court confrontation over the ability of a pregnant immigrant teenager in U.S. custody to have an abortion appears to be receding.

The Trump administration says in court papers filed Tuesday that it has obtained the teen’s birth certificate and it shows she is 19 years old, not 17.

That means she will no longer be in the custody of the Health and Human Services Department office that oversees shelters housing immigrant children. In March, HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement revised its policy to discourage and prohibit pregnant teens from having abortions.

The administration said the woman would be transferred to Department of Homeland Security custody. It’s unclear when she might have the abortion, but other federal agencies appear to allow women in their custody to have abortions.