WV-Sen: Morrisey joins coalition to defend government's right to refuse abortions for illegal youth

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R) joined the attorneys general of 10 other states to defend the federal government's right to refuse abortions for underage illegal immigrants, the West Virginia Record reported.

The 11-state coalition recently filed an amici curiae brief, also known as a friend-of-the-court brief, which declared support for a federal policy that prevents the government from facilitating abortions for juveniles who were taken into custody for illegally crossing the border.

"The federal government has the right to refuse to facilitate unnecessary medical procedures, specifically abortions, for unaccompanied juveniles who have illegally entered the country," Morrisey told The Record.

West Virginia joined the states of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Kentucky.

Morrisey is challenging incumbent Sen. Joe Manchin (D) for his Senate seat in November.

What's the story?

Earlier this year, a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled that the Trump administration cannot prevent abortion services to young, illegal immigrants, NPR reported.

"The lower court ruling not only erodes the meaning of the U.S. Constitution but encourages more foreign youth to enter America illegally under the promise of such procedures," Morrisey said in a news release.

The decision stems from a case last fall that involved an unaccompanied 17-year-old Central American girl who was caught attempting to illegally cross the border while pregnant. She told authorities that she wanted to get an abortion, and court briefs indicated that abortions were generally illegal in her home country.

A Texas judge bypassed a state law that requires parental consent for an abortion, but the federal government would not allow her to leave the facility to get the abortion without a sponsor. The government's initial position did not even contest the minor's legal right to obtain an abortion, but merely asserted that she should be required to get a sponsor in accordance with standard HHS procedure so that HHS personnel did not have to transport her to and from the facility where she would receive the abortion and the legally required pre-abortion counseling.

Pro-choice activists accused the government of violating her right to an abortion.

The American Civil Liberties Union got involved and obtained an order from the District of Columbia court of appeals allowing the abortion,  which she ending up receiving in a bizarre series of events that ended with government lawyers requesting sanctions against the ACLU for allegedly lying about the time the woman was to receive her abortion.

The federal district's court ruling would allow illegal immigrants the right to elective abortions and deemed not medically necessary.

Until the recent litigation, no court had ever recognized such broad rights for illegal immigrants with "virtually no connections to this country," according to The Record.

In June, the Supreme Court tossed out the lower court's ruling on the matter.

The states have urged the appeals court to reverse its decision.

What else did Morrisey say?

Juveniles who enter the U.S. illegally do not have a constitutional right to an elective abortion.

“It is crucial that our country not grant unlawfully present, underage immigrants the same rights given to U.S. citizens under the Constitution," Morrisey told The Record.

"The lower court ruling dangerously blurs the lines that were distinctly drawn out by our nation’s founding fathers. If the ruling is left intact, it will encourage more underage youth to illegally enter the county in hopes of similar treatment," he continued.

What did Manchin say?

Manchin's campaign refused to respond to multiple requests for comment on the issue. However, there's a similar measure on the state's November ballot.

Amendment 1 is a measure that would amend the Constitution of West Virginia to declare that the state constitution doesn't protect a woman's right to an abortion or for the state to fund the procedure.

"We'll see what happens," Manchin told Politico when asked about his position on the ballot initiative last month.

According to Politico, Manchin appeared to have been unaware of the initiative that had received little public attention.