According to an NPR investigation, unaccompanied pregnant teen migrant girls — some as young as 13 — are being placed in a facility in the South Texas border town of San Benito that has been flagged for inadequate medical care. Ali Velshi sits down with Jonathan White, the former director of a federal unaccompanied child program, to talk about the danger these pregnant teen migrants face and how the Trump administration is putting their abortion policy ahead of health and welfare.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) operates around 200 facilities across the country, equipped with medical services for high risk maternity care. But the San Benito facility, run by a for-profit contractor, is where the Trump administration is sending all pregnant unaccompanied minors apprehended by immigration enforcement.
Pregnant teens are at higher risk for miscarriage, infection, hypertension, anemia, and premature labor. The Texas abortion ban has caused care for these conditions to be denied, a serious health threat considering mortality in childbirth is two times higher in teens than adult women. Placing pregnant girls in a single shelter located in a state where abortion is virtually banned is putting them in danger in service of ideology.
White spoke to NPR about the administration’s policy for their investigation. As he tells Velshi, “It is a clear attempt to deny girls abortions without having to go to court.”
LISTEN: VELSHI ASKS WHY PREGNANT TEEN MIGRANTS ARE ALL GOING TO TEXAS
WATCH: VELSHI AND JONATHAN WHITE ON WHAT’S HAPPENING AT SAN BENITO
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