The Trump administration’s abrupt cancellation of a federal program to prevent teen pregnancy in 2017 was directed by political appointees over the objections of career experts. Three appointees with strict pro-abstinence beliefs — including Valerie Huber, the then-chief of staff for the department's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health — guided the process to end a program many medical professionals credit with helping to bring the nation’s teen pregnancy rate to an all-time low.

The Trump administration is seeking to remake health rules at home and abroad for women, gay and transgender people, restricting access to abortion, curtailing support for contraception and narrowing the scope of civil rights in healthcare. The quiet, behind-the-scenes influence of Mike Pence, who has been driven throughout his political career by his evangelical Christian beliefs to restrict abortion and prioritize the rights of religious conservatives. Under the direction of two secretaries recommended by Pence, the Department of Health and Human Services has moved to slash funds from teen pregnancy-prevention programs, curb abortion both in the United States and abroad and strip civil protections for transgender patients. The $213 million Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program was aimed at helping teenagers understand how to avoid unwanted pregnancies. It had bipartisan support in Congress and trained more than 7,000 health professionals and supported 3,000 community-based organizations since its inception in 2010. Evelyn Kappeler, who for eight years has led the Office of Adolescent Health, which administers the program, repeatedly expressed concerns about terminating the program, but appeared out of the decision-making loop and at one point was driven to tears.

Oh boy.... Mike Pence.... the least written man on this web site despite his evil-to-the-core status.

In a White House marked by turnover, the amiable Pence has been a quiet presence prodding the administration to align with his faith-based agenda. Aides describe him as a man whose effectiveness is rooted in a willingness to shun the limelight and put like-minded proteges in crucial jobs. The administration has emphasized abstinence programs, led by appointees who believe contraception harms women, and pushed to cut government funds for Planned Parenthood....a national network of healthcare providers, offers infertility services, contraception and abortions. Public health civil rights offices....have been retooled into a new Office of Conscience and Religious Freedom. This month, the office unveiled a final “conscience rule” to strengthen protections for healthcare workers who object to performing abortions and sterilizations or treating gay and transgender patients. And the HHS, along with the State Department – headed by Pence ally Mike Pompeo, also an evangelical Christian – has expanded the campaign beyond U.S. borders. Trump-appointed officials are seeking to delete language in international documents at the United Nations they contend promotes access to abortion and expands healthcare rights to transgender individuals.

This is getting absolutely, positively zero coverage. Unless you're sharing this post, your friends have no clue about this. Republicans love big government telling all of us what to do when it comes from them. Simple as that.

A cadre of religious conservatives appointed in the early days of the administration is driving the changes, largely from within HHS, which administers most government health programs, along with the State Department and White House. Many appointees come from religious and conservative groups, some of whom regularly protested outside abortion clinics during the Obama years. In the Trump-Pence West Wing, “everywhere I turn are colleagues, mentors and friends who have fought in the pro-life trenches for decades,” Katy Talento, who handled health policy in the White House, told an anti-abortion group in Texas. She last week announced plans to leave the administration. “I still can’t believe they let us all in the complex every day.”

Yep, that quote sums it up. I can't believe it either. I also can't believe no one has any clue about this. PRO LIFE MY ASS.

Aligning the policy with Pence’s evangelical Christian principles, the administration stocked the Department of Health and Human Services and other federal agencies with a cadre of pro-life staff members. This story lists 10 of those appointees. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pence-hhs-people/the-foot-soldiers-in-the-trump-pence-religious-health-movement-idUSKCN1T017Q

The story behind the program’s demise is one of a growing list of examples of the control Trump political appointees are exerting at federal agencies. It is also part of a broader narrative about programs benefiting women and children becoming political targets under a "president" who insists he is an advocate for women’s rights and health.

Nationally, this public health battle has often been pushed to the background by the nonstop churn of Trump’s tweets and controversies. “One of the benefits of Trump’s Twitter approach is it creates headlines, and that’s what it’s intended to do, and underneath those headlines, everyone else in the administration can go about peacefully doing their job,” said David McIntosh, president of the conservative Club for Growth and a longtime Pence friend. HHS has “released several very important, significant regulations that changed the nature of Obamacare, of healthcare, with very little coverage in the press.” Emboldened by the movement and by the new conservative majority on the Supreme Court, states including Alabama and Missouri have passed laws in recent weeks that nearly outlaw abortion, spurring nationwide protests.

THE REPUBLICANS ARE EVEN TELLING US EXACTLY WHAT THE GAME IS!!!!!!

Sources:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pence-hhs-special-report/special-report-as-trump-rewrites-health-rules-pence-sees-conservative-agenda-born-again-idUSKCN1T0176

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pence-hhs-people/the-foot-soldiers-in-the-trump-pence-religious-health-movement-idUSKCN1T017Q