Donald Trump has appointed Teresa Manning, an anti-abortion and anti-contraception activist, to oversee a federal family planning program. This news is terrifying because a woman who once said she thinks "contraception doesn't work" will now be controlling access to family planning services—like contraception—for many Americans.
Manning will serve as a deputy assistant secretary for The Office of Population Affairs, the section of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) that oversees Title X funding. Some context: Title X is a federal funding program that subsidizes family planning services—like STI testing, fertility treatment, certain cancer screenings, and contraception—for 4 million low-income Americans each year. Without the services provided by Title X, the U.S. rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion would be about 33 percent higher, according to the Guttmacher Institute. So yeah, Title X is a pretty big deal—which is why it's so concerning that Trump appointed Manning to oversee it.
You see, Manning, who has lobbied for the National Right to Life Committee and served as an analyst for the conservative Family Research Council, has said some pretty controversial things about family planning over the years. "Of course, contraception doesn’t work," Manning told NPR in 2003. "Its efficacy is very low...The prospect that contraception would always prevent the conception of a child is preposterous." To be fair, contraception can't always prevent pregnancy, but that doesn't mean it "doesn't work." In fact, Guttmacher Institute research from earlier this year shows contraception is more effective than ever. The failure rate for condoms is 13 percent when used perfectly, meaning the person is following the contraceptive's exact instructions for use. (Typical use, on the other hand, encompasses incorrect or inconsistent use, as well as not using it at all) For birth control pills, it's 10.3 percent, and for IUDs, it's 1 percent. That means that only 1 in every 100 Americans using IUDs experiences unintended pregnancy. "Doesn't work?" Yeah, right.
Manning has also called abortion a "legalized crime" and argued that emergency contraception (like Plan B) is "the destruction of a human life already conceived." For the record, emergency contraception doesn't end a pregnancy. It prevents someone from becoming pregnant in the first place, either by delaying ovulation or creating a toxic environment for sperm. (Emergency contraception is often confused with the abortion pill, which terminates a pregnancy up to 10 weeks in. These are very different things.) And Manning has claimed that there's an "undisputed" link between abortion and breast cancer—even though there's no medical evidence to back that up.
Manning has spent her career limiting women's access to family planning services—all the while perpetuating harmful myths about those services. It's terrifying that a woman who doesn't even understand how contraception works is now responsible for a family planning program 4 million Americans rely on.
This news comes on the heels of Trump appointing Charmaine Yoest, former CEO of the anti-abortion group Americans United for Life, as assistant secretary of public affairs for the DHHS. Yoest played a major role in the Susan G. Komen Foundation decision to defund Planned Parenthood, she doesn't believe in abortion exceptions for cases of rape or incest, she thinks IUDs have "life-ending properties," and she promotes same the unsupported claim that having an abortion increases the risk of breast cancer.
"This is the fox guarding the hen house, and women with low incomes will pay the price," Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood, said in a statement. "It is a cruel irony to appoint an opponent of birth control to oversee the nation’s only federal program dedicated to family planning."
A cruel and horrifying irony, indeed.
Feeling motivated to act? There's still time to make your voice heard. SELF's resources on finding activist opportunities and getting involved in policy decisions are great places to start. If you're passionate about women's access to reproductive healthcare in particular, you can also consider: donating to the Center for Reproductive Rights, volunteering for NARAL Pro-Choice America, donating to the Reproductive Health Access Project, or volunteering for Planned Parenthood. Other organizations can help families in need access affordable childcare, job training, and much-needed food and household supplies.
Related:
- Congress Is Voting on a Health Care Plan That Is Terrible for Anyone With a Pre-Existing Condition
- Why Defunding Planned Parenthood Is a Disaster for Health Care
- Donald Trump's Latest Appointment Is Terrible If You Care About Women's Health at All
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