The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) should help new populations maximize their potential in the United States by linking them to critical resources that assist them in becoming integrated members of American society. Scott Lloyd, the man Trump chose to head the federal agency that oversees refugee affairs, is a prominent antiabortion activist and attorney. Under Lloyd, O.R.R. has banned shelters from helping any of pregnant girls in U.S. custody get abortions, instead mandating that they receive “life-affirming options counseling.” He confirmed his anti-abortion attitude and he has denied requests to young immigrant woman to leave the shelter to obtain an abortion.
“I suggest that the American people make a deal with women: So long as you are using the condom, pill or patch I am providing with my money, you are going to promise not to have an abortion if the contraception fails, which it often does,” Lloyd wrote back in 2009. “You will put the baby up for adoption if you don’t want him or her. We can do this by having the woman sign a pledge.” His office now demonstrates his stance over an underage girl.
Jane Doe, a 17-year-old girl, was pregnant when she crossed the border in September as an unaccompanied minor. Since then, she has been detained in a shelter in Texas. Because of Texas’ parental consent law, she needed to go to court to get a judge’s permission, which she did with help from Jane’s Due Process, a nonprofit legal organization that provides representation to pregnant minors in Texas. It was scheduled for Sept. 28, near the end of Doe’s first trimester.
Repaying his loyal supporters on the religious right, Donald Trump has given federal appointments to a number of anti-abortion activists. They’ve been working quietly to dismantle access to reproductive health care while the country is distracted by the president’s pyrotechnic outrages. For almost a month, some of these Trump appointees have been waging a crusade to force the young woman, whose future in this country is extremely uncertain, to carry her pregnancy to term, New York Times reports.
The American Civil Liberty Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of Doe, and they have been battling it out in court, but on October 20, a divided appeals court delayed final resolution of the case. The judges gave the Trump administration until Oct. 31 to find a private sponsor who will house her and allow her to get the medical abortion she was been requesting since the beginning.
The ACLU called the ruling to delay the procedure for Doe, who is now 15 weeks pregnant, “a dangerous decision.” The group encouraged members to “put pressure” on Lloyd to “stop systemically denying young immigrant women their rights to safe abortion care.” - The administration went as far as to claim that “there is no constitutional right” for an immigrant minor to get an abortion while in federal custody.
Forcing young women to undergo pregnancies against their will? This is not only clearly unconstitutional — it’s unconscionable.
It’s not yet clear when or even if Doe will finally be able to terminate her pregnancy. Abortion in Texas is mostly illegal after 20 weeks.
Photo Credits: Wikimedia Commons
