The U.S. Should Not Be Subjecting Refugees To ‘Reverse’ Abortions
March 9, 2018The U.S. government is once again trying to use people of color for its medical experiments ― and once again, Americans aren’t paying enough attention.
A January report revealed Trump administration members discussed interfering with a young woman of color’s abortion while she was in federal custody. According to VICE News, officials in the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) considered delaying a 17-year-old refugee’s abortion procedure and instead engaging in an experimental method to “reverse” the abortion ― a controversial practice that some anti-abortion advocates have campaigned for.
The VICE report details the case of a young woman from El Salvador who was raped before being detained and then sought an abortion while in federal custody. After obtaining a judicial bypass, as required for minors in the state of Texas, the young woman took the first of two pills used in medical abortion procedures.
This is when government officials discussed interrupting the second part of the medical procedure, according to a deposition that is part of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit on behalf of the detained refugee. In a March 4, 2017, memo, then-acting ORR director Kenneth Tota instructed staff to take the young woman to a local hospital for examination. “If steps can be taken to preserve the life of the [unaccompanied alien child] and her unborn child, those steps should be taken,” Tota wrote.