Texas advocate calls for probe into federally funded abortions for unaccompanied minors

A Texas advocate is calling on the incoming Trump administration and Congress to revisit federal policy that uses taxpayer money to fund and facilitate abortions for unaccompanied alien children (UACs) illegally brought into the U.S.

The U.S. Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is responsible for the oversight and care of UACs, has come under extensive scrutiny for a range of issues, The Center Square has reported. These include not vetting sponsors, not keeping track of several hundred thousand missing children, allowing UACs to be trafficked, prostituted and sent into forced labor, Office of Inspector General audits and congressional and state investigations have found.

Additionally, young girls and teenagers are often raped by their smugglers along the journey to the U.S. or by others in the UAC program while being housed in ORR facilities, including in Texas, according to several reports, The Center Square reported. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called on the president to shut down several facilities in Texas, arguing his administration was presiding over the abuse of children.

Because the greatest number of UACs have been housed in HHS-contracted facilities in Texas, Alliance for a Safe Texas president Sheena Rodriguez has been calling for state and federal reform. She’s also been sounding the alarm about the connection between trafficking and abortion, pointing to several reports. One includes a UC Berkeley School of Public Health report citing data that “60%-80% of unaccompanied girls are sexually assaulted during their journey to the United States.”

Abortion advocates argue that pregnant UACs should have access to taxpayer-funded abortions and abortifacients.

“Abortion is essential health care and accessing it should not depend on your immigration status, whether you’re incarcerated, or which state you are in,” the American Civil Liberties Union argues. The ACLU also advocates for eliminating all Border Patrol checkpoints, arguing they “trap people trying to escape Texas’ abortion ban.”

Under the Trump administration, a federal rule was implemented requiring ORR to prohibit UACs from being transported to have abortions. In 2017, the ACLU sued and won in court. In 2020, ORR issued a new policy stating federal staff could not block or interfere with UAC access to abortion.

After the reversal of Roe v. Wade and state abortion bans, the Biden administration expanded the 2020 policy to prioritize placing pregnant UACs in states with no abortion bans and if they were placed in states with abortion bans, they be transferred to facilities in abortion-friendly states. Several U.S. senators opposed the policy and requested information about HHS ORR UAC facilitated abortions, saying doing so violated federal law.

Abortion advocates argue federally funded UAC abortions are legal because they fall under the exceptions listed under the Hyde Amendment. The amendment, first enacted in 1976, restricts Congress from allocating federal funds to pay for abortions in annual appropriations bills for the departments of Labor, HHS, Education, and their subagencies. The exceptions include saving the life of the mother, rape and incest, and if carrying the baby to term would cause long-term negative health consequences to the mother, the Congressional Research Service explains.

Rodriguez, a former pregnancy center counselor, supports the previous Trump abortion policy, but at a minimum says Congress must implement a range of transparency requirements.

“Children are being abused and sexually assaulted and they need resources and support to help them deal with the trauma they’ve endured,” she told The Center Square. “This does not include advocating for them to get an abortion especially without parental consent, as is often done. These minors need to understand all of their options, including adoption and assistance to keep their child. They also need to be told the long-term side effects and potentially deadly consequences of taking abortion medication or undergoing procedures that could result in sterilization. Sponsors must also be notified about what procedures and trauma the minors have endured.”

Alliance for a Safe Texas is calling on the incoming Trump administration and Congress to require HHS ORR to report how many pregnant UACs are in its care, how many had abortions under its care, how many were transported to have abortions, how many were given abortion pills, how many of their parents were notified, and other information related to what extent UACs were given informed consent.

Rodriguez also suggests that transparency requirements also include requiring HHS ORR to disclose how many UACs received abortion pills that were brought into states that passed abortion restrictions and how many UACs were transported to abortion friendly states from states like Texas. Texas’ abortion ban not only outlaws most abortions but also allows for civil and criminal litigation against abortion providers and those transporting women and girls to have them. HHS ORR should also be required to disclose how many of its shelters and contracted facilities worked with Planned Parenthood, nongovernmental organizations and abortion groups to provide abortion related services and facilitate transportation to receive them, she says.

Requirements should also include HHS ORR disclosing how many UACs received counseling and what kind and how much expanding abortion access to UACs cost taxpayers.

“Taxpayers have a right to know how much taxpayer money is being used to perform an abortion on a young female minor,” Rodriguez says.