Trump officials mulled undoing abortion for undocumented teen

A Trump appointee floated the idea of using a controversial procedure to reverse an undocumented teen's abortion, according to reports and court documents.

Scott Lloyd, director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), suggested a 17-year-old immigrant from El Salvador be given progesterone, according to a partial deposition he gave to the ACLU reviewed by the Daily News.

The deposition given by Lloyd - a staunch anti-abortion advocate before taking over the office last March - is part of a lawsuit the ACLU filed in October against ORR for trying to block at least four teens from getting abortions. The El Salvadoran teen is not one of the plaintiffs.

Lloyd's leadership has been under fire because of his controversial attempts to stop undocumented, underaged teens who have crossed into the U.S. to get abortions.

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"I can tell you that the (Jane Does) that we represent have endured a tremendous amount in terms of their journey and their detention," Brigitte Amiri, a lawyer with the ACLU, told the News. "All of these women have shown tremendous courage."

The lawsuit mentions the 17-year-old immigrant, who was being held at the time in a federally funded shelter in Texas.

In March 2017, she took mifepristone, the first of two pills needed for the abortion, which was approved by a judge, the lawsuit claims. The second pill needed to be taken up to 48 hours later.

Kenneth Tota, then-acting head of ORR, wrote in a memo that officials to bring her "to the emergency room of a local hospital in order to determine the health status of (the teen) and her unborn child."

"If steps can be taken to preserve the life of the (the teen) and her unborn child, those steps should be taken," Tota wrote in the memo, which was attached to the lawsuit.

She was forced to undergo an ultrasound while at the hospital, Amiri told the News, to see the baby's condition.

The teen went ahead with the procedure, however, and took the second pill.

"It's frankly shocking what the government did to this young woman," Amiri said. "She was in the middle of this medicated abortion...they forced her to go to the emergency room."

Lloyd, who took over ORR later that month, was asked during the deposition if he discussed sending the teen to the hospital to block the abortion.

"I may have," Lloyd said, adding he would've discussed it with transition staff and attorneys.

An ACLU attorney then asked if the agency would try reversing abortions in the future.

"I don't know, I mean except to save the life of the baby," said Lloyd, who worked for the Knights of Columbus before taking the job.

The Office of the Administration for Children & Families, which oversees ORR, didn't immediately return a request for comment Thursday.

Reverse abortions have been generally panned by the medical community as unsafe.

George Delgado, a San Diego doctor, gained national attention in the last few years over his alleged reverse abortion procedure.

The doctor claims his administration of progesterone, a hormone sometimes used to avoid miscarriages, can block the effects of the first pill used in the abortion if the second one hasn't been taken.

His findings became more prominent after penning a 2012 study about six women he claims could block the procedure.

Medical experts who spoke with Mother Jones last June panned Delgado's procedure because they said it didn't have enough scientific evidence to be supported and relied on anecdotes.

Pro-choice advocates have bluntly labelled the experimental process as "junk science."

Legislatures in Arkansas, South Dakota and Arizona have passed laws requiring doctors to tell women undergoing abortions about the reversal procedure. Those bills were panned by pro-choice groups, because several relied on Delgado's 2012 study.

Arizona's 2015 legislation was repealed a year later, however, after a legal challenge brought by the state's chapter of Planned Parenthood.

"This reckless law was a prescription for bad medicine and government interference at its worst," Bryan Howard, head of Planned Parenthood Arizona, reportedly said in an August 2016 statement. "This is exactly why politicians need to leave the practice of medicine to medical professionals."

ORR under Lloyd's leadership has been criticized for trying to block underage women from getting abortions.

An unidentified teen held at a federally funded Texas facility was allowed to receive an abortion in October after a strong challenge from the Trump administration.

The ACLU and other advocates said Health and Human Services officials tried talking the teens out of getting abortions, and reportedly sent to religious centers to coerce them.

The government was also accused of forcing the teens to contact their parents in their home country, to inform them about the procedures.