President Trump Names Pro-Life Advocate to Oversee National Family Planning Program

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   May 1, 2017   |   6:59PM   |   Washington, DC

President Donald Trump appointed another strong pro-life advocate to his administration this week.

Politico reports Teresa Manning, a law professor who has an extensive pro-life background, will help oversee a federal family planning program that currently gives money to Planned Parenthood.

Manning will be appointed to the role of deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Population Affairs of the Health and Human Services Department. Politico first reported Manning’s appointment, and The Hill confirmed it Monday.

Manning, formerly Teresa Wagner, has extensive experience in the pro-life movement. A law professor at George Mason University, she previously worked for the National Right to Life Committee and the Family Research Council. She also wrote a book about pro-life movement.

In the new role, Manning would oversee Title X grants, many of which currently go to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion chain. Mic reports Title X gives out about $286 million in family planning grants for contraception, STD screenings, pap smears, sex education and other services.

Title X is just one of the sources from which Planned Parenthood receives taxpayer funding, but Manning could play an instrumental role in introducing pro-life policies into the department.

Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood, slammed Manning in a statement Monday.

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“It is a cruel irony to appoint an opponent of birth control to oversee the nation’s only federal program dedicated to family planning,” Laguens said.

Other abortion activists and liberal news outlets also attacked Manning. The Huffington Post claimed she has made “false claims” about abortion and opposes contraception.

What Manning said about contraception in a 2003 NPR interview was this:

“Its efficacy is very low, especially when you consider over years, which you know a lot of contraception health advocates want, to start women in their adolescent years, when they’re extremely fertile, incidentally, and continue for 10, 20, 30 years, over that span of time.

“The prospect that contraception would always prevent the conception of a child is preposterous. Over a 30-year period a woman is very likely to conceive at least once, if not twice, and Family Planning Perspectives, the publication which writes on all this, admits that in its articles. It is very interesting what’s happened to the justification of contraception and then the justification of abortion, because contraception doesn’t work.”

They also attacked her for calling abortion “legalized crime,” for highlighting the link between abortion and breast cancer and for saying that emergency contraception can destroy a newly-formed human life.

Her appointment comes just days after Trump chose another pro-life leader, Charmaine Yoest, for a top post in the HHS Department.

Yoest is the former president of Americans United for Life, one of the most prominent pro-life organizations in the county. Yoest would become the assistant secretary of public affairs — a position that shapes communications efforts for the entire agency.

She will replace Kevin Griffis, who now works for the Planned Parenthood abortion chain, according to Politico.

Yoest, a former vice president at Family Research Council, is well-respected within the pro-life movement, and frequently speaks out against the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

Yoest told LifeNews.com: “Planned Parenthood deceptively holds itself out as protecting women’s health, as it cuts legitimate health care in favor of abortion sales, while lobbying for more taxpayer largesse. The time is now for Congress to defund Planned Parenthood and invest taxpayers’ hard-earned money in real healthcare that saves lives and safeguards women’s health.”

The appointment continues Trump’s pro-life record. He started in January by reinstating the Mexico City policy, defunding International Planned Parenthood. He continued by defunding the pro-abortion UNFPA and signing a bill to allow states to defund Planned Parenthood abortion company.

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