Why is HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt Blogging About Abortion?

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


I can’t decide which end of the latest abortion kerfuffle is more inappropriate:

The US Department of Health and Human Services’s ill-fated (I hope) attempt to redefine birth control as abortion,

OR,

the fact that HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt is blogging about it on my dime:

“I’m delighted to announce that with the help of Planned Parenthood, my blog—for the first time—received more visits than my teenage son’s MySpace page. Perhaps I’ll address the subject of physician conscience one more time.”

Tough call. Either way, I want my tax dollars back.

Read more about the Medical Right’s latest volley in the choice wars here, here, and here.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate