Trump’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, headed by anti-abortion activist Scott Lloyd, purported that they were trying to deny an undocumented Jane Doe’s right to choose “based on her own best interests.”
Today, BuzzFeed and the ACLU have obtained a shocking, newly unsealed letter from Lloyd that proves he knew the teenager had been impregnated in a rape, but had tried illegally to force her to bear the child anyway.
To make matters worse, Lloyd knew Jane Doe was threatening to harm herself if she could not obtain an abortion and he still doubled down.
Scott Lloyd, director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, knew that Jane Poe was pregnant as a result of rape and that her mind was made up about wanting an abortion. He still denied her right to abortion care. #JusticeforJane
— ACLU (@ACLU) December 21, 2017
Lloyd’s letter goes so far as to call Jane Doe’s potential abortion, even in the case of rape, “killing a child in our care,” even though a fetus is not a child, and even though the Supreme Court’s 1971 Roe v. Wade decision made a woman’s right to choose the law of the land.
The court just released letters from the gov in the case of undocumented teens seeking abortion. Gov says one of the teens was pregnant by rape, asked for an abortion multiple times, and threatened self harm if she was not allowed to obtain it. pic.twitter.com/p8jeojDNms
— Ema O'Connor (@o_ema) December 21, 2017
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Republican men like Trump and Lloyd have steadily fought to erode women’s reproductive rights, including in their recent tax scam, while simultaneously doing everything in their power to make it impossible for poor women to raise a child in America.
Meanwhile, by advocating “abstinence-only education,” Republicans do everything they can to stop teen girls from preventing unwanted pregnancies before they happen.
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As a representative of the Trump agenda, Lloyd has unsuccessfully fought to stop Jane Doe and two other undocumented minors, currently residing in federally-funded shelters for pregnant immigrant girls, from obtaining abortions.
While the path has been cleared for three Janes to get their abortions after protracted legal battles, ORR's no-abortion policy still stands, and Scott Lloyd is still enforcing it. Our fight to strike down this cruel and heartless policy goes on. #JusticeforJane
— ACLU (@ACLU) December 21, 2017
In a dramatic maneuver, the administration demanded two days ago that the Supreme Court hear one of their cases trying to prevent a 10-week pregnant girl from exercising her legal right to not have to become an undocumented teen mother — one of the most vulnerable positions a person can hold in American society.
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The president trying to control women’s and teen girls’ bodies has five children by three different women; has been accused of rape by his own ex-wife and a former victim of child trafficking; has bragged about sexual assault; and has called avoiding STDs during his draft-dodging years his “own personal Vietnam.”
While anti-choice advocates like Lloyd and others in the Trump administration invoke “unborn babies” and women’s “best interests” to rationalize their official anti-abortion stance, their crusade is merely a misogynist’s weak attempt to exert control over women.
Their inhumane treatment of Jane Doe and other pregnant undocumented teens shows how insecure Trump and Lloyd really are.
Only a frightened little man would press his advantage over the most vulnerable among us. In so doing, they just make themselves smaller.
Follow Lucia Brawley on Twitter.
