Trump's Refugee Director Is Apparently Penning His Own Anti-Abortion Book Now

After a summer of controversy over the family separation policy at the U.S.-Mexico borer, Trump's Refugee Director, Scott Lloyd, is penning an anti-abortion book, according to Politico. But this should come as little surprise: Lloyd was an anti-abortion advocate before he was tapped for the position of refugee director. Perhaps more strikingly, Lloyd was also the Trump official who tried to stop a detained migrant teen from getting an abortion in 2017. Bustle has reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services for comment.

According to The Washington Post, Lloyd denied abortion access to the 17-year-old girl, even after she reported that she had been raped. After a series of back-and-forth court decisions that made it all the way to the Supreme Court, "Jane Doe" was eventually granted the right to an abortion. In the year that's passed, though, Lloyd's stance on abortion has presumably remained the same — and he's making that clear in his supposed new book.

Per Politico, Lloyd's book will reportedly detail the need for anti-abortion policies, as well as talk about the "spiritual awakening" he had when he dealt with an abortion, personally. He's written about this topic before in law school. For an assignment, he wrote about the experience of taking a partner to get an abortion, according to Mother Jones.

Lloyd wrote, “The truth about abortion is that my first child is dead, and no woman, man, Supreme Court, or government — NOBODY — has the right to tell me that she doesn’t belong here.”

Not much is known about Lloyd's reported book, beyond the general information. But if he is, in fact, writing a book about his abortion beliefs, then he will certainly have a wide net of experience to draw from. Prior to working as the refugee director, Lloyd was an attorney at Knights of Columbus, a Catholic-based organization focused on charity and faith-based institutional change.

Lloyd's resume while working there listed his first significant accomplishment as being an "architect of late-term abortion restriction that is law in six states and is a bill in U.S. House and Senate." It also lists the publications he has written and is most proud of, including "Banning Dismemberment Abortions: Constitutionality and Politics" and "Does Contraception Really Prevent Abortions? Abortion Industry Statistics Indicate That The Answer Is Not As Simple As Many Claim."

In the past, Lloyd has argued that women should "sign a pledge" that if they have an abortion, they will be essentially ineligible for taxpayer-funded contraception. On another occasion, he wrote in a 2009 opinion piece for the National Catholic Register:

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.

It's unclear how involved Lloyd has been on a personal basis with migrants in the family separation crisis earlier this summer. However, an HHS official did tell The Washington Post that Lloyd has personally intervened to persuade unaccompanied minor girls to carry their pregnancies to term in the past.

The official explained, “He by law has custody of these children, and just like a foster parent, he knows that that’s a lot of responsibility and he is going to make choices that he thinks are best for both the mother and the child.”