Who Is Teresa Manning? Anti-Abortion Official Abruptly Resigns From Health Department

A top anti-abortion advocate at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under President Donald Trump’s administration abruptly resigned Friday evening.

Teresa Manning, who served as the deputy assistant secretary for population affairs, resigned after less than a year on the job, according to a report in the Hill.

Although HHS or its spokesperson did not reveal the reason behind her sudden resignation, they did thank her for her brief services to the administration. The spokesperson said that HHS “would like to thank her for her service to this administration and the American people.”

According to the Guardian, Manning previously worked for two anti-abortion groups - one named National Right to Life and the other being an infamously anti-LGBTQ lobbying group named the Family Research Council. Politico was the first to break the news that Manning had been appointed as the deputy assistant secretary of population affairs mainly because of her belief that “family planning is an issue concerning only a husband, wife, and God to head up the nation's federal family planning program,” Romper.com reported.

In 2003, while addressing a press conference during the promotion of a book she had edited, Manning said: “I always shake my head. You know, family planning is something that occurs between a husband and a wife and God, and it doesn't really involve the federal government, much less the United Nations, where we hear about family planning all the time. What are they doing in that business?” The book that Manning had edited was based on an anti-abortion movement. Any further details about the book or its author are unknown.

According to a Huffington Post report, during a 2003 radio interview, Manning has also rejected the idea behind contraception. “Of course contraception doesn't work. Its efficacy is very low, especially when you consider over years — which, 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. The prospect that contraception would always prevent the conception of a child is preposterous,” she said at the time.

In the past, on several occasions, Manning has come under scrutiny and has been criticized for her statements about abortion and birth control by human rights advocates.

Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America had also slammed her appointment at the time and said: “It is a cruel irony to appoint an opponent of birth control to oversee the nation's only federal program dedicated to family planning. We are at the lowest rate of unintended pregnancy in 30 years and a historic low for teen pregnancy because of access to birth control. Someone who promotes myths about birth control and reproductive care should not be in charge of the office that is responsible for family planning at HHS.”

During the course of her job at HHS, Manning’s duties involved overseeing “Title X” which is a grant that provides important funds to health care providers so that it is ensured that "low-income and uninsured women and men can access family planning and preventive health services."

According to a report in the Hill, the program, currently, is months behind in the application process for 2018.

As of now, HHS has announced that Valerie Huber, will be serving as the chief of staff for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health and will also take over as the interim deputy assistant secretary for population affairs.

According to the U.S. Health and Human Services website, Huber has more than 15 years of experience with programs that focus on adolescent health.

She has also co-founded and served as the president/CEO of Ascend, a national organization that champions young people to make healthy decisions in relationships and life. Huber also has been a public health advocate and has managed the Ohio Department of Health’s sexual risk avoidance program which provides educational resources to almost 100,000 students a year.