Statement of NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

The National Organization for Women fiercely condemns the Trump administration’s manipulation of the judicial system to to prevent Jane Doe from receiving abortion care.

These despicable, underhanded tactics are nothing new. For years we have watched federal, state, and local lawmakers attempt to chip away at women’s constitutional rights to reproductive care.

Jane Doe’s story bring this reality into sharp focus, because the facts of the case are so devastating. The Trump administration is forcing an undocumented teenage girl to remain pregnant, with nearly incoherent logic predicated on the promotion of birth over the protection of women.

The burden is clearly undue–and, unsurprisingly, has been placed squarely on the shoulders of an already vulnerable young woman. We applaud her strength as she endures the Trump administration’s drawn out court case, and continues to raise her voice for access to reproductive rights.

She persists, and so we will resist. No other woman should be forced to endure what Jane Doe has. We demand #JusticeforJane, and an end to the legal hurdles that rob all women of their bodily autonomy.

Contact
M.E. Ficarra, press@now.org, 951-547-1241