March 16, 2021
Washington, DC
Conservatives oppose the nomination of Dr. Rachel Levine to be Assistant Secretary of Health at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Dr. Levine currently serves as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health, and boasts a tenure characterized by incompetent handling of the state’s response to COVID-19. In a move similar to Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York, Levine issued an order forcing COVID-19 patients into nursing homes – but only after Dr. Levine’s mother was moved out of those nursing homes, first.
As a result, six of the 10 nursing homes with the most COVID-19 deaths in the nation occurred in Pennsylvania. The nursing home industry has sued the state over $150 million in federal funds they claim were withheld from them and diverted elsewhere. Pennsylvania also ranks as one of the worst states for vaccine distribution, a program also overseen by Levine.
Levine made further dubious medical determinations as part of Pennsylvania’s COVID response, designating abortion facilities as providing “essential services,” and recommending that all school sports be banned statewide.
Equally troubling, however, are Levine’s views on the use of puberty blockers and sex reassignment surgeries in children – something Dr. Levine apparently supports. When asked by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) whether minors are capable of making a decision as life altering as changing one’s sex, even against parental wishes, Dr. Levine did not answer the question, stating only that if confirmed, a briefing would be provided to the senator on the “standards of care” in transgender medicine.
Levine is also on the record seeking to dismantle the Office of Conscience and Religious Freedom Division at Health and Human Services, stating on a Center for American Progress conference call that the office should “either disbanded or certainly redirected.”
Dr. Levine’s extremely poor track record as Secretary of Health in Pennsylvania, vague positions on dramatic and life-changing procedures in children, and a demonstrated hostility to religious liberty make this nominee unqualified to set a national agenda for public health.
We urge the Senate to reject the nomination of Dr. Rachel Levine.