Author: Lyndsay Lei Takayesu

Uncle Bill’s
Bathroom Reader
The More You Go, The More You Know Issue 49, Mid–November 2017

A VICTORY FOR JANE DOE, BUT THE DOJ JUST WON’T QUIT
On October 25, 2017, Jane Doe, an undocumented seventeen-year-old in Texas, received the abortion she had been trying to get since she arrived in the United States and discovered that she was pregnant. Jane Doe fled to the United States because of abuse in her home country. Upon arrival, the government placed her in a federally funded children’s shelter where she learned that she was pregnant. She received the judicial bypass to receive an abortion without parental consent required under Texas law. Nevertheless, the Trump Administration denied her access to an abortion and sent her to a “crisis pregnancy center.” The center forced her undergo a sonogram and told her not to abort.
Doe filed suit against the government, alleging that they had denied her constitutional right to an abortion. The government argued that as an undocumented person, she had no constitutional right to an abortion. She finally won her suit at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. She had the abortion during the sixteenth week of her pregnancy – five weeks after she requested the abortion and four weeks before Texas law would have banned her abortion.
If you thought that this latest development would bring a definitive end to the case, you are wrong. The DOJ has filed an appeal to the Supreme Court to vacate the Court of Appeals’ decision and sanction the ACLU attorneys who represented Doe. According to the government, Doe’s attorneys should be forced to “show cause why disciplinary action should not be taken” against the ACLU for “material misrepresentations and omissions” designed to thwart an appeal.
Thus, it remains to be seen whether other young women in Jane Doe’s position will also be able to exercise her hard-won right to an abortion.
DEAR BATHROOM READERS,
We are coming up on our 50th issue of Uncle Bill’s Bathroom Reader– and what an amazing 50 issues it has been! It has been our pleasure to reproduce so many stories that delight and inform our readers. That’s why we are celebrating the occasion with a scavenger hunt.
Brought to you by Uncle Bill, La Alianza, and Lexis Nexis, the next issue will be released on Monday, Nov. 27 which will mark the beginning of the scavenger hunt. The hunt will last for one week (until Friday, Dec. 1) and the first three players to complete the hunt will win $75, $50, and $25 gift certificates from select locations. But that’s not all! Everyone who completes the hunt will be awarded 350 Lexis Nexis points (totaling $5).
Get ready for the
Richardson Scavenger Hunt!

lawcirc@hawaii.edu—unclebillsbathroomreader.weebly.com

Text box Times New Roman size 16. Fill color black, 85% transparency