Trump administration tracking teenage girls who want an abortion

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A Trump administration agency has been tracking migrant teenage girls who want an abortion after facing fierce criticism and a court order not to interfere with their access to abortions.

This comes after campaigners called for a criminal investigation of a controversial Trump appointee who blocked pregnant migrant teens in his custody from accessing abortions.

Scott Lloyd ordered shelters to send the women to have consultations at religiously affiliated crisis pregnancy centres that are against abortion – and undergo medically unnecessary ultrasounds.

He had been running the Office of Refugee Resettlement – an agency which helps refugees arriving in the US and runs shelters housing detained child migrants – from March 2017. He was removed from the post in November and is now in another department.

But it has now emerged the agency continued to keep tabs on the teenage girls after Mr Lloyd, who had a long track record of working to restrict reproductive rights before taking up his former role, was transferred to another position.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement was keeping a spreadsheet of pregnant minors in their custody from October 2017 until March this year. This is a whole year after a preliminary injunction was issued that ordered the US Department of Health and Human Services - which oversees the Office of Refugee Resettlement - to stop interfering with women’s access to comprehensive reproductive health care.

Mary Alice Carter, executive director of Equity Forward, a reproductive rights group, said: “It is ludicrous that the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) has continued to track young women’s pregnancies, as we know that it has previously used this tactic to violate civil rights and that the health department has an overall pattern of weaponising health care information. We also know that ORR has repeatedly failed to comply with court orders.

“These records raise new questions about ORR’s conduct that may violate a court order. Alex Azar [the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services] needs to explain why he allows his employees to pursue their obsessions with young women’s bodies to the detriment of the ORR’s critically important mission.”

Ms Carter added: “Our concern is this information has been used to influence and discourage young women from getting abortions.”

She argued the “general philosophy” of the US Department of Health and Human Services was to deny access to reproductive healthcare and said this had been demonstrated in Mr Lloyd not being fired but simply being moved to another department. He is now a senior advisor at the Centre for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement is now run by Jonathan Hayes, who she says holds “anti-abortion views”.

Ms Carter said the newly revealed spreadsheet, which was published by government transparency researcher Russ Kick, contained information about whether the girls were pregnant and “whether they were reporting it was sexual assault or voluntary”. She noted that this sheet did not have the date of the last period, unlike a previous document, but does have “estimated gestational age”.

Mr Lloyd was asked whether the Office of Refugee Resettlement tracked the menstrual cycles of any of the girls in the office’s care during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in March this year and specifically denied doing so.

But in deposition testimony in a lawsuit against the US Department of Health and Human Services regarding the treatment of pregnant unaccompanied minors filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Mr Lloyd admitted to receiving a “spreadsheet” with information, including “estimated gestational age”.

There are 28 pages detailing the periods, pregnancies and reason for the pregnancy – whether it was by rape or not – of teen girls in custody, some of whom were 12 years old. The spreadsheet goes from July 2017 to June 2018.

Brigitte Amiri, an ACLU lawyer who is leading on their case involving him, said: “The real question is why the Office of Refugee Resettlement continues to collect this data, and what are they doing with it. While tracking this information with this level of detail is concerning, we are not aware of any minor in ORR custody that has been unable to obtain abortion or abortion information since our court victory.”

Alice Huling, a lawyer for the Campaign for Accountability, a public interest watchdog which has called for a criminal investigation into Mr Lloyd, said: “The fact that ORR continued tracking, well into 2019, the pregnancies of minors within its custody in this bizarre and invasive way further demonstrates that Mr Lloyd’s congressional testimony to the contrary was false and that he needs to be held accountable.”

The watchdog is asking the House Judiciary Committee to refer Mr Lloyd for the Department of Justice for investigation into whether he deliberately lied to congress over tracking menstrual cycles.

During his time in his former role, Mr Lloyd denied an abortion to a pregnant rape survivor who had threatened to hurt herself if she was forced to carry to term. A federal judge became involved and the woman was allowed to have an abortion.

The Trump official also ordered a pregnant girl who was otherwise ready for release to be held in custody until she had anti-abortion counselling.

In a 2017 deposition, Mr Lloyd acknowledged he had never approved an abortion request that crossed his desk.

A spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment, but previously said: “We have reviewed the matter and have concluded that Mr Lloyd’s testimony was accurate. Any statements to the contrary are incorrect.”