Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) released the following statement after the Trump Administration and Scott Lloyd, Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), blocked the fourth young immigrant woman from obtaining an abortion:
“I am outraged at Director Scott Lloyd and the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s (ORR) ongoing refusal to respect the constitutional right to abortion of young, undocumented immigrant women in custody to obtain an abortion. There are now reports of ORR denying a fourth woman access to abortion, despite two previous cases in which federal courts directed ORR to comply with the Constitution and allow three other women to get an abortion.
It seems every day a new horror story comes out of ORR. It has been reported that ORR was aware that at least one of those young women seeking an abortion was a victim of sexual assault. In another instance, ORR insisted on reporting the young woman’s abortion to her relatives, despite the relative’s insistence he would beat her if she went through with the procedure.
Mr. Lloyd appears to think that if he just keeps doing the same illegal, unconstitutional acts over and over again in a myopic, extreme crusade against abortion, they will somehow become legal. But that is not how our laws work. No one—not Mr. Lloyd or the President of the United States—can pick and choose which laws they obey, or decide that they are exempt from respecting the rights guaranteed in our Constitution.
ORR must immediately cease this policy of intimidation and comply with the rule of law, and I call on the Chairman Goodlatte of the House Judiciary Committee to schedule an oversight hearing immediately so that Congress can understand why ORR, under the direction of Mr. Lloyd, continues to flout the Constitution and deny these young women their rights.”
