Trump picks pro-life advocate to lead national family planning programs
President Donald Trump has appointed a law professor with an extensive pro-life background to oversee federal planning programs within his administration.
Teresa Manning, who has previously worked for pro-life organizations such as the Family Research Council and the National right to Life, will be named as the new deputy secretary for population affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services.
In her new role, Manning would be in charge of overseeing the disbursement of funds for Title X, which is the only federal grant program dedicated to providing family planning and related services.
Planned Parenthood, which receives some of the Title X grants, decried Manning's appointment in a statement on Monday.
"It is a cruel irony to appoint an opponent of birth control to oversee the nation's only federal program dedicated to family planning," said Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood, according to Life News.
About $286 million in Title X grants are given out for contraception, STD screenings, pap smears, sex education and other services.
Pro-abortion activists called on Trump to withdraw the appointment, saying his choice could jeopardize the federal programs responsible for preventing millions of unplanned pregnancies.
Manning, formerly Teresa Wagner, has previously voiced her skepticism about the efficacy of female contraception.
"Of course, contraception doesn't work," she said in an NPR interview in 2003. "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," she added.
She was also criticized for calling abortion "legalized crime," and highlighting the link between abortion and breast cancer.
Manning, a law professor at George Mason University, had sued the University of Iowa for job discrimination in 2012, claiming that the school refused to hire her because of her hardline positions on abortion and politics. But a federal jury ruled in favor of the school in 2015.
Her appointment came just days after Trump picked another pro-life leader, Charmaine Yoest, for a key position in the HHS Department.
Yoest, the former president of Americans United for Life, was appointed as the new assistant secretary of public affairs, a position that oversees the communications efforts for the entire agency.