Secretary Azar: As long as Scott Lloyd remains director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, you’re stuck with all of his baggage. View our ad.
Watchdog Group Launches Ads Asking Sec. Azar, Do You Stand With Scott Lloyd?
Equity Forward Places Two Full-Page Print Ads and Major Digital Buy As Part of HHS Watch Campaign
03.15.18 – As Scott Lloyd remains at the helm of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Equity Forward announced a six-figure ad campaign asking HHS Secretary Azar whether or not he stands with Scott Lloyd. This move comes amid growing grassroots momentum for Lloyd’s removal as advocates and legislators plan to rally outside of HHS.
The print and digital ad buy — which includes a full-page open letter in the New York Times and a full-page ad in Politico — is Equity Forward’s largest ad investment to date since launching in January. The digital buy begins this week and will continue through the end of the month. View the ads HERE.
“Ultimately HHS Secretary Azar is responsible for the policies and actions of the leaders under his command,” said Equity Forward executive director Mary Alice Carter. “As long as Scott Lloyd remains director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Secretary Azar is stuck with Lloyd’s baggage. Secretary Azar, it’s time to send Scott Lloyd and all his baggage packing.”
ORR Director Lloyd has, for months, captured headlines for personally intervening in the reproductive health care decisions of immigrants in his agency’s care. He has implemented an anti-abortion policy consistent with his own personal beliefs, but inconsistent with the rule of law. Lloyd’s actions not only break with precedent for an ORR director but have also been overruled by federal courts on multiple occasions.
Recently, Secretary Azar defended ORR but failed to state his position on Director Scott Lloyd specifically. He is back on Capitol Hill today for a budget hearing, just four weeks after a hearing wherein he once again failed to be transparent on his feelings toward Director Lloyd.
“Director Lloyd is a disgrace to HHS,” Carter continued. “His actions have been rejected by multiple courts, with one federal judge even saying he committed a ‘grave constitutional wrong.’ He promoted an unproven medical treatment for a teenager. And he continues to rack up legal bills on the taxpayers’ dime. Does Secretary Azar support HHS leaders breaking the law? If Secretary Azar doesn’t ask Director Lloyd to resign, that can only mean Secretary Azar doesn’t support the rule of law.”
About HHS Watch
Equity Forward launched HHS Watch earlier this year, a campaign that examines decision makers at HHS through a full audit into the positions and backgrounds of appointees and continuous monitoring of their actions.
President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and Secretary Azar are overseeing a wholesale redesign of America’s health policy, particularly as it relates to reproductive health. Appointees to the agency under their leadership are actively seeking to undermine proven, popular, and effective reproductive health programs, as well as Americans’ independent reproductive health decisions.
Secretary Azar took the helm at this critical yet troubled agency in early 2018. However, issues of transparency and accountability remain. Equity Forward believes that there should be full daylight around the who, how, and why of changes within HHS.
About Scott Lloyd
Lloyd has deep roots in the anti-abortion, anti-LGBT movement. Now, he has put those personal beliefs into action as director of ORR and steward for undocumented minors.
- He has espoused radical views on reproductive health issues including being opposed to birth control.
- Lloyd co-founded LegalWorks, a pro-life “legal apostolate” that pitches itself as a firm committed to representing clients “while remaining faithful to Church teaching.” Lloyd also co-founded WitnessWorks for a Cultural Life, which Business Insider called “an anti-abortion religious organization that even has its own ‘pro-life, pro-faith search engine.’”
- Lloyd was formerly the Assistant Director for Public Policy for the Knights of Columbus.
- He claimed to be the “architect of late-term abortion restriction that is law in six states and is a bill in U.S. House and Senate.”
- Among the organization’s major programs is the Ultrasound Initiative, which has made KOC one of the leading funders of ultrasounds in the U.S. — including ultrasounds at anti-abortion counseling centers like the one ORR required Jane Doe visit.
- As recently as 2016, Lloyd served on the board of Front Royal Pregnancy Center, an anti-abortion counseling center.
Lloyd’s volume of work in opposition to abortion, birth control, and same-sex marriage includes numerous remarkable passages. Read excerpts of Lloyd’s writings at EquityFwd.org.
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