WASHINGTON, D.C., November 21, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Scott Lloyd, the pro-life member of the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) who fought to prevent the government from being forced to facilitate abortions for illegal immigrant minors, has been resassigned to another position within the department.
Scott Lloyd rose to national prominence as director of HHS's Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). He was one of the main figures in battle to save illegal immigrants’ pre-born babies, and was repeatedly attacked by leftists and the media for this. The fight was particularly bitter and came to a head in last year’s Garza v. Hargan. The D.C. Circuit Court ruled that the government had to let a teen being held in Texas to leave the detention facility to obtain an abortion. The Supreme Court later vacated the ruling, but not in time to prevent that particular abortion.
Now, Lloyd will become a senior adviser at HHS’s Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Politico reports. The center’s mission is to champion religious liberty and religious engagement in the process to develop solutions for issues such as health insurance, the opioid crisis, mental illness, and childhood obesity.
Politico suggests Lloyd’s reassignment is a punishment for his handling of ORR, quoting unnamed officials who claim he mismanaged the separation and reunification of illegal immigrant families at the southern border. But the Daily Caller, which first reported the move, quotes Lloyd himself and others framing it in a more positive light.
“While I have valued my time at the Office of Refugee Resettlement, I am excited to take on this new challenge,” Lloyd told the Caller. “I am joining the Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives to help Director [Shannon] Royce and team continue to develop bold ideas on how communities and faith-based entities can play a central role in successfully achieving the Secretary’s priorities.”
“I’m thrilled to have Scott join our team and bring his relationships and expertise to bear in serving the needs of our communities,” Royce, the former Chief of Staff for the pro-life and pro-family Family Research Council, added. Lloyd is a former attorney for the Knights of Columbus.
Other HHS officials said Lloyd was frustrated by the media’s “wild inaccuracies” about his work at ORR, that his transition was “part of a broader discussion within the department” and “remains in line with his previous experience,” and that it’s part of efforts “to expand our outreach efforts” to “our community-based and faith-based partners.”
Left-wing media outlets such as Rolling Stone and the Huffington Post are framing the story as a potential punishment for Lloyd’s leadership of ORR, but others are dissatisfied the pro-life official still has a job. “Scott Lloyd should have been fired,” Gabe Ortiz wrote at the far-left Daily Kos, calling Lloyd an “anti-abortion zealot” with “extremism to spread around.”
Lloyd became a target of left-wing and pro-abortion ire over the family separation controversy, his role in ORR’s resistance to facilitating abortions for minors in federal custody, and the discovery of a pro-life essay he wrote in law school. Lloyd is also reportedly working on a book about abortion.
“I’ve realized that absolutely every single reason to support an abortion is a distortion of the truth,” Lloyd wrote in a 2004 piece opening up about his guilt for once paying for an abortion. “Two steps beyond all of them is a proper investigation of the matter, and two steps back reveals the fear and selfishness behind them.”