The Secretary of Health and Human Services is charged with improving the health and well-being of the public. The Secretary works to improve public health through the more than 100 programs run by the department; and through their oversight of organisations such as the Food and Drug Administration and the Center for Disease Control. They have significant impact on the development of policy in areas such as reproductive rights and LGBT access to healthcare.
Politics should never come between Americans and their ability to access high quality medical care. We deserve a Health and Human Services Secretary who demonstrates respect for the Constitution and scientific evidence; one who will work for all of us.
The Facts
Joined an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of a school board’s discriminatory policy that segregated transgender students from their peers. (Source)
- Described Department of Justice guidelines allowing students to use the school restroom that best corresponds to their gender identity as “absurd”. (Source)
- Called the Supreme Court’s decision in favor of same-sex marriage “not only a sad day for marriage, but a further judicial destruction of our entire system of checks and balances.” (Source)
- Opposes requiring employers to include access to family planning services in employee health care plans. (Source)
- Member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a fringe medical group which has questioned the link between HIV and AIDS, described being transgender as a “pathology”, and advocated for conversion therapy. (Source)
- Opposed the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. (Source)
- Publically supported Kelvin Cochran, a Fire Chief terminated for distributing literature to his employees that equated homosexuality with beastiality and pedophilia. (Source)
Votes
- Voted against reproductive rights six times in 2016 alone. (Source)
- Voted against a law to protect women who use birth control or receive an abortion from workplace discrimination. (Source)
- Voted against replacing Georgia’s old confederacy inspired state flag. (Source)
- Voted against a bill to ban workplace discrimination against employees on the basis of their sexual orientation. (Source)
- Proposed two separate bills to defund Planned Parenthood. (S0urce)
- Voted against using hate crime legislation to protect people on the basis of their gender, gender identity, disability, or sexual orientation. (Source)
- Twice proposed constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage. (Source)