Trump administration lawyers at the Department of Justice appealed to the Supreme Court late Monday to block a federal district judge’s order permitting an abortion for an undocumented teen girl who is being held in federal custody.

Earlier in the day, the same judge allowed an abortion to be performed on a second undocumented teen.

Both girls are 17 years old.

[lz_ndn video=33360972]

The first case will proceed, according to Politico, with the Justice Department acquiescing to the order. But the second case reportedly has “differing circumstances.”

In the stay order, the second teen is said to be 10 weeks pregnant. The first teen is actually 22 weeks along in her pregnancy, and was approaching 24 weeks, a point at which many states do not allow abortions.

The restraining order issued against the federal government was made by U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, an appointee of former President Barack Obama.

Chutkan ordered both abortions to proceed Monday, writing in a brief order that there is a “need to preserve [the teens’] constitutional right to decide whether to carry their pregnancies to term.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) represents the teens, who are being held in government shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a division of Health and Human Services. The shelters’ locations have not been disclosed publicly.

The ACLU complained Monday that “there are hundreds of pregnant young women in ORR custody every year. The Trump administration blocks them from abortion care, coerces and shames them for their decisions, and forces to them [sic] to go to anti-abortion counseling centers.”

Who do you think would win the Presidency?

By completing the poll, you agree to receive emails from LifeZette, occasional offers from our partners and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and legal statement.

PoliZette White House writer Jim Stinson can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter here.

(photo credit, homepage image: Facade and fountain of the United States Supreme Court Building, CC BY-SA 3.0, by Sunira Moses; photo credit, article image: Panorama of the west facade…CC BY-SA 3.0, by Joe Ravi)