UPDATE: Ex-Surgeon General Says White House Hushed Him & Surgeon General Sees 4-Year Term as Compromised

Yesterday, former Surgeon General, Richard H. Carmona, testified to a Congressional panel that top Bush administration officials tried to prevent him from speaking out on public health issues they deemed controversial, including abstinence-only sex education, the emergency contraceptive Plan B, and mental and global health issues. He stated that any health information that did not align with the administration’s ideological or political agendas was excluded from or pushed to the fringes of his reports. For example, when Carmona wanted to speak out about scientific research supporting the benefits of teaching about both abstinence and contraceptives in schools, he was silenced. David Satcher and C. Everett Koop, also former Surgeon Generals, attended the hearing, and claimed that although these practices had become worse during the Bush era, previous administrations had also suppressed scientific information that conflicted with political and personal interests. Satcher reported that under the Clinton administration, he was refused permission to publish a report about sexuality and public health due to sensitivities surrounding the Lewinsky scandal. Koop stated that under the Regan administration, he had been dissuaded from confronting the AIDS crisis. For similar reasons, former FDA commissioner, Susan F. Wood, resigned in 2005 because of the administration’s delay tactics surrounding the approval of over-the-counter sales of the emergency contraceptive, Plan B.

Full Articles:
Ex-Surgeon General Says White House Hushed Him
Surgeon General Sees 4-Year Term as Compromised