Doctors, advocates weigh in

After censorship report, local professionals offer assurances high quality care will continue

When a report by the Washington Post hit the news cycle Dec. 15 alleging censorship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, medical professionals, scientists and advocates — as well as a large faction of the general populace — reacted strongly.

Initial sources said senior officials in the CDC in charge of the budget, at a Dec. 14 meeting, banned the use of seven designations: “science-based,” “evidencebased,” “fetus,” “transgender,” “vulnerable,” “entitlement” and “diversity.”

The words circulated widely through social media newsfeeds as people deliberately used the terminologies that the CDC was told to avoid in its 2019 budgetary materials.

“All of these words matter. There’s no one word that matters more than another, from our perspective,” said Amanda Skinner, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England.

Since the report broke, Matt Lloyd, the Department of Health and Human Services’s principal deputy assistant secretary for public affairs, has denied there are any “banned words” at the CDC. Though the initial Post article blamed President Donald Trump’s administration for the barred terms, follow-up reports differ on the wheres and whys of the list.

Some media analysts, advised by anonymous sources from HHS, have hypothesized that officials at the CDC incorporated the changes themselves to assuage a more conservative, rightwing Congress that might take issue with the ideas associated with words like “fetus” and “transgender” when making funding decisions.

Whether the recommendations originated in the CDC or outside of the agency, there is proof the initial conversation about language did indeed take place.

Now, medical professionals and advocates are speculating whether the word recommendations will bleed into other areas at the CDC.

While the future of the agency and its policies seem uncertain, Fairfield County’s doctors and activists said they are resolute in ensuring that at least locally, science-based treatment is extended to everyone, no matter their identity.

“Greenwich Hospital remains committed to providing high-quality, evidence-based medical care. Our mission of healing will not change,” said Dr. Spike Lipschutz, Greenwich Hospital’s senior vice president of medical services and chief quality officer.

Skinner echoed Lipschutz’s statement. At Planned Parenthood, “we follow evidence-based, science-based clinical practices,” she said.

In the past, Planned Parenthood has often used CDC guidelines. Whether health care providers like the organization’s clinics will have to look elsewhere for nonpartisan medical advice in coming years, Skinner would not conjecture.

“I don’t know what they will be saying in their clinical practices and protocols,” she said. “Our intent is as it has always been, which is that we will use the best evidence and the best information we have from the health care research community to guide the way that we provide our health care.”

Skinner does view the alleged shift in the CDC’s language as “a change in the focus of the agency.”

“It’s an affront to women,” she continued. “It’s an affront to the transgender community. It’s an affront to... people of color — and (an) affront to the people who work at the CDC.”

In a Vice article, experts on transgender policy expressed concerns particular to the demographic they represent. The story pointed to the CDC’s own research — which indicates that transwomen suffer a high risk of HIV — to emphasize the potentially lethal effects of ignoring the existence of an entire identity.

Locally, members of the LGBTQ+ organization Triangle Community Center in Norwalk were “deeply concerned” by the Washington Post’s report on CDC censorship.

“TCC remains steadfast in its mission of serving Fairfield County’s transgender community and will continue to work with the State of Connecticut to develop new programs and funding streams to address public health disparities affecting this community, with or without the support of President Trump’s administration,” a spokesperson wrote to Greenwich Time.

Language changes at the CDC are not 2017’s first perceived attack against LGBTQ+ citizens; Trump’s ban on transgender military service ranks high in the minds of activists troubled by a new executive branch’s outlook on the queer community.

More recently, on Wednesday, the White House let go of all remaining members on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, after a handful of appointees resigned in June because they said they felt Trump did not care about the disease.

Drew Marzullo, Greenwich’s first openly gay selectman and a member of the town’s diversity advisory committee, wrote to Hearst Connecticut Media that the federal government has “become extremely hostile to the LBGT community” and that “the President’s budget is generally shaped to reflect his administration’s priorities.”

“He (Trump) picked a rabidly anti-gay running mate, attempted to ban transgender troops from serving, instructed government attorneys to not take action protecting transgender people in the workplace and nominated Neil Gorsuch,” Marzullo wrote.

“The CDC is working hard on ways to prevent HIV and reduce health disparities among transgender people,” he continued. “If transgender people who already feel excluded are removed from documents, this could result in dangerously life-threatening consequences to over 1.4 million Americans.”

This is not the first initiative under Trump’s tenure to combat scientific practice or women’s reproductive rights, either.

Early into his stint as commander-in-chief, research on climate change began to disappear from federal websites, including on Environmental Protection Agency pages. Meanwhile, HHS has added explicit political language to its 2018-22 draft plan by indicating that “life” begins “at conception,” phraseology that aligns squarely with an anti-abortion agenda.

As the government and its agencies institute policies that target certain demographics and the sciences, Skinner said she has been cheered by the outpouring of support she has noticed around her.

“Support for women,” she specified. “Support for the transgender community. Support for vulnerable populations.”

If anything, the new administration’s outlook on women’s health has brought more Fairfield County residents to her organization’s doorstep, statistics show.

Across Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, attendance is on the rise, and last year health center visits at just the Stamford clinic were up by 17 percent.

“What we have seen actually happen is a historic grassroots movement spark up across the country,” Skinner said. “I actually feel hopeful and heartened by the response that we’re seeing, and I don’t feel discouraged.”

“All of these words matter. There’s no one word that matters more than another, from our perspective.” Amanda Skinner, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England president, CEO