Illegal immigrant minor suggests she faced pressure to get abortion on federal dime

close

Video

Court hears case of illegal immigrant seeking abortion

Reaction and insight on 'Fox News Tonight.'

The Trump administration is trying to keep another illegal immigrant minor from using federal dollars to get an abortion.

But this time, the woman in federal custody doesn’t even seem to want to terminate her pregnancy.

According to court documents filed this week by the Justice Department, the woman said her guardians, Rochelle Garza and Myles Garza, assisted her on Feb. 6 by giving her documents to seek an abortion. The Garzas have represented other illegal immigrant minors seeking abortions.

Illegal immigrants eye Texas as an abortion sanctuary

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton gives his take on the case

But in a handwritten statement a day later, the woman in this case said she didn’t want an abortion anymore and didn’t want the Garzas representing her interests.

“At this time I have changed my decision to have an abortion,” the woman said in the statement, according to the court filing.

In an apparent reference to the Garzas, the woman said: “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.”

The minor woman had been apprehended and placed into the custody of the Health and Human Service’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, the filing said. Like in other cases, the woman was referred to as Jane Doe to protect her identity.

That government’s filing asked United States District Judge Rolando Olvera to replace the Garzas as the minor's guardians. Olvera has granted the request.

In November, in another case involving a minor illegal immigrant seeking an abortion, the Justice Department took the unusual step of complaining to the Supreme Court about being "misled" by lawyers for the ACLU and the Garzas. The DOJ said lawyers for the woman tricked government attorneys by scheduling an abortion in the middle of the night, just hours before a Supreme Court review.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to take up the administration’s appeal in that case in a closed-door conference Friday. The abortion has already occurred – but the Justice Department does not want any judicial precedent established.

Fox News’ Bill Mears contributed to this report.