Trump Wants an Anti-Abortion Extremist to Run the CDC

FROM THE ARTICLE

“Make no mistake, although we are all at risk, should Weldon become the next CDC Director, he will have access to sensitive public health data that could put Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and those in rural communities at greater risk of surveillance and criminalization as they seek the care they need.”
President & CEO Dr. Jamila Perritt

The confirmation hearing for longtime anti-abortion advocate and former Congressman David Weldon to run the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) begins this week, and, wow, that’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.

Weldon’s name may sound familiar to many of you, even if you can’t immediately place it. He’s the architect of the Weldon Amendment, one of a series of refusal-of-care policies that allows hospitals and other health-care facilities to refuse to provide abortion care because of religious or other conscience objections, all without jeopardizing federal funding. He’s also stridently anti-choice, supporting bill after bill targeting abortion rights and access. And to top it all off, he’s a doctor who is anti-vaccine—just the kind of guy you want running the nation’s top public health agency during a measles outbreak.