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Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Who is Scott Lloyd?

The government’s grotesque abuse of power over a 17-year-old seeking an abortion

J.D. — SHORT FOR JANE DOE — is a 17-year-old immigrant living in a Texas shelter for undocumented minors. She is also pregnant and seeking an abortion. The federal government refuses to allow her to end her pregnancy.

Under the directorship of E. Scott Lloyd, an antiabortion activist appointed by President Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR began preventing federally funded shelters from “facilitat[ing]” access to abortion services unless Mr. Lloyd approved. Instead, shelters for undocumented minors may support only “pregnancy services and life-affirming options counseling.” Mr. Lloyd has personally reached out to several pregnant teenagers to counsel them against seeking abortions, reportedly viewing himself as a “foster father.” ...

Mr. Lloyd’s behavior toward J.D. is not just unconstitutional. It is also a grotesque abuse of government power over a vulnerable young woman far from her home. The government should not need a court order to do what is obviously right. It should allow J.D. access to the medical care to which she is legally entitled, immediately.


So who is Lloyd? Well, he's a conservative Catholic, an attorney formerly employed as Policy Coordinator for the Knights of Columbus (you know, they who spent so much money trying to doom marriage equality for LGBT people). Before that, in 2008, while working at HHS, he co-authored a "conscience rule" for doctors. Here's a bit from a New York Times story ...

The Bush administration, as expected, announced new protections on Thursday for health care providers who oppose abortion and other medical procedures on religious or moral grounds .... The rule prohibits recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and health care aides who refuse to take part in procedures because of their convictions, and it bars hospitals, clinics, doctors’ office and pharmacies from forcing their employees to assist in programs and activities financed by the department ....

Opponents of abortion, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Health Association, which represents Catholic hospitals, support the new regulations and say they are needed to protect health-care providers from being forced to perform abortions and sterilizations.

They are opposed by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association, among others. Opponents contend that the regulations are a threat to a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion, and that they are not needed in any event because the Civil Rights Act of 1964 already prohibits employment discrimination based on religion.


Here's a bit more about his conservative bona fides from This Week in Immigration ...

Prior to his appointment to ORR, Lloyd served on the Board of Directors of the Front Royal Pregnancy Center [a pro-life crises pregnancy center] and is Vice Chairman and co-founder of the WitnessWorks Foundation for a Culture of Life [an anti-contraception and anti-abortion organization]. He was a contributing writer at HLI America [Cardinal Burke is one of their heroes], as well as Veritas Splendor and the Center for Morality in Public Life's Ethika Politka. Lloyd also was a member of the John Carroll Society, Brent Society and the Federalist Society.

You can read some of his extreme opinions - I say extreme because the vast majority of Catholics support the use of contraception, the legality of abortion, and the worth of marriage equality for LGBT people - here at the religiously conservative site, Ethika Politika.

It seems Trump has chosen as ORR director the most biased and prejudiced appointee possible.

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