Trump official Scott Lloyd continues to face attacks on his character because of his life-affirming policies in the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement.
The latest attack targets comments that Lloyd made during a December deposition about pregnant illegal immigrant minors who want abortions. The ACLU is suing the federal government to force it to help facilitate these girls’ abortions with taxpayer dollars.
The comment that is garnering so much negative publicity is this: Lloyd told the deposition that illegal immigrant minors have “no constitutional right to abortion,” The Hill reports.
The ACLU highlighted the remark this week in a series of documents that it released related to its legal battle with the government.
Here’s more from the report:
In a deposition Lloyd gave in December, he replied ‘yes’ when asked if he believed undocumented minors have “no constitutional right to abortion.”
The ACLU has battled the Trump administration over the policy, representing four pregnant undocumented minors who had been blocked from getting abortions.
In three cases, the girls were able to get abortions while the fourth was released to a sponsor.
In 2017, Lloyd issued a new policy requiring that taxpayer-funded shelters for immigrants and refugees offer life-affirming support to unaccompanied minors who are pregnant. The duties of the office including providing basic care, including health care, to unaccompanied immigrant children until they are placed with a family member or sponsor.
Lloyd said the shelters may not take “any action that facilitates” an abortion for unaccompanied minors without his direct approval, and “grantees should not be supporting abortion services … only pregnancy services and life-affirming options counseling.”
In November, the ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging the policy in an attempt to create a right to abortion on demand for any woman or girl who steps on U.S. soil.
Lloyd has borne the brunt of the negative publicity, but ACLU attorneys have been accused of unethical behavior at least twice involving the matter.
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In November, the Trump administration said the pro-abortion legal group deceived the government about when an illegal immigrant teen’s abortion was scheduled. The government said this prevented it from appealing a court ruling that forced Lloyd’s office to help facilitate the girl’s abortion.
Then, earlier this month, another pregnant illegal immigrant minor said she felt pressured by pro-abortion attorneys to sign paperwork allowing them to represent her.
“At this time I have changed my decision to have an abortion,” the young woman said, according to the court filing. “The people I saw yesterday were lawyers that made me sign, I … do not need their help because I do not want to have an abortion.”
Lloyd came into the national spotlight last fall after the ACLU demanded that his office help facilitate an abortion for an unaccompanied minor in Texas. “Jane Doe” aborted her 16-week unborn baby on Oct. 25, barely a day after a federal appeals court forced Trump administration officials to help facilitate the abortion.
News reports indicate the teen needed mental health counseling after aborting her unborn child.
Lloyd also faced criticism for providing his office with information about the abortion pill reversal treatment.
