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1 (November 27, 2017)

handle is hein.crs/crsmthmbdgd0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional _______ ~Research Service Informing the Iegislative debate since 1914 The Federal Government's Plenary Immigration Power Collides with the Constitutional Right to an Abortion (Part I) Hillel R. Smith Legislative Attorney Jon 0. Shimabukuro Legislative Attorney November 27, 2017 This Sidebar is the first in a two-part series discussing Garza v. Hargan, a decision by the US. Court of Appeals for the D. C. Circuit involving a detained unaccompanied alien minor and the right to terminate a pregnancy. The second Sidebar is available here. In Garza v. Hargan, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (D.C. Circuit), sitting en banc, upheld a federal district court's order requiring the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to allow a detained 17-year-old unaccompanied alien minor to have an abortion. The alien minor (Jane Doe), who had been apprehended by immigration authorities when attempting to enter the United States, sued the federal government on the grounds that HHS's decision to deny her access to an abortion while she remained in agency custody interfered with her right to terminate her pregnancy. Jane Doe obtained an abortion following the D.C. Circuit's en banc decision. The Garza decision, however, may have broader implications for other aliens in U.S. custody. The court's decision to afford Jane Doe access to an abortion turned upon the application of the Supreme Court's longstanding precedent that a woman has a constitutional due process right to terminate her pregnancy. Nevertheless, the D.C. Circuit's decision raises renewed questions over the extent to which the government may impose abortion restrictions, particularly in light of HHS's current policy to deny a detained unaccompanied alien minor access to the procedure in the United States until she secures a sponsor. In addition, the court's decision arguably leaves unresolved a threshold question - does an alien Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov LSB10032 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Conaress

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