Story highlights Charmaine Yoest is the former president of Americans United for Life, which promotes anti-abortion legislation

Yoest has been known to cite medically dubious claims

(CNN) US President Donald Trump has appointed one of the country's leading anti-abortion crusaders to a senior communications post in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Conservative author and commentator Charmaine Yoest will serve as assistant secretary of public affairs at HHS, the White House said in a statement Friday.

Yoest, who campaigned actively for Trump, is a senior fellow at American Values, a conservative nonprofit that supports "traditional family values." But she's best known as former president of Americans United for Life, which promotes anti-abortion legislation at the state and federal level.

Under Yoest's leadership from 2008 to 2016 the group helped states adopt numerous abortion restrictions, including a ban after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Charmaine Yoest testifies on Capitol Hill before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan on July, 1 2010.

She has been known to cite medically dubious claims, including that abortion increases a woman's risk of breast cancer . (Yoest herself is a breast cancer survivor).

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