Scott Lloyd is not one of the better known names in the Trump administration, but his impact is beginning to grow nonetheless. Instead of making large-scale policy changes in the public eye, Lloyd has been working under the surface, but his actions need to be brought into light. Lloyd is the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
This means that along with helping refugees find shelter in the U.S., he is also responsible for overseeing undocumented minors who enter the country without a legal guardian. Unfortunately, Lloyd is using his job to make life in America more difficult than it is already is for young female immigrants.
Back in September of 2017, a female immigrant who would later be called Jane Doe entered the United States and was later taken to a shelter for unaccompanied minors. It was here that she found out she was pregnant. Doe then demanded an abortion. She went through all of the legal processes necessary to receive this abortion in the state of Texas. The procedure was scheduled towards the end of her first trimester, which was within the legal limit. According to reporting by The New York Times and court documents filed in Garza v. Hargan, Lloyd then stepped in. Using his position, he denied her the right to receive the medical procedure.
Lloyd also asked his staff to send any other pregnant teens in his custody asking for an abortion to a “life-affirming” counselor if needed.
Lloyd outlined his opinions on reproductive rights in an opinion article written for The Federalist in August 2015.
According to the article, he does not believe that women who receive any sort of contraceptives under Title X should be able to receive an abortion if they get pregnant, and he believes that contraception creates a culture that relies on abortion. Lloyd completely ignores the fact that contraceptives are not entirely preventive of pregnancy, even when the people are extremely careful.
In the article he said,“the reality [is] that the contraceptives we have come to rely on come with inherent failure rates, and these contraceptive failures form the core of the demand for abortion … Instead, it is the case that contraception enables sexual encounters and relationships that would not have happened without it.”
Contraceptives are not the enemy, and they can help avoid unwanted pregnancies. Taking contraceptives away would only result in more women getting pregnant and looking for abortions, which seems like an outcome Lloyd would want to avoid. In his view, none of the responsibility for pregnancy should be placed on men.
All of his views come into play when dealing with the immigrants under his protection. In some cases, he will personally talk to pregnant teenagers and try to convince them to not have an abortion.
Lloyd has every right to hold the views he does on abortion, but it is blatantly wrong to impose them on vulnerable teenagers and deny them access to a completely safe and legal medical procedure. Nobody deserves this sort of harassment when trying to make a decision that is already putting enough stress on them.
Lloyd, along with all of his supporters, must also realize that these girls are not having an abortion just to have one.
It was likely a hard and heartbreaking decision for them. Being an undocumented immigrant already sets them back in society. Having a child would make it almost impossible for them to succeed in our culture.
I am not justifying abortion. I am just trying to bring to light the fact that it is a difficult, catch-22 situation for pregnant immigrants, and they should be supported whichever decision they make.
If Lloyd really wanted to take positive action against immigrants under his care receiving an abortion, he would do his best to put more support services into place to help them if they do decide to have a child.