The Trump administration’s record on “values issues” is key to winning the upcoming midterm elections, Assistant Secretary of Health Brian Christine told the Daily Signal.
Christine said the Department of Health and Human Services, in the lead-up to the November elections, is emphasizing its actions on social issues such as protecting kids with gender dysphoria from life-altering procedures, protecting women’s sports, and ending taxpayer-funded abortion. He called the actions “some of the best things the Trump administration has done.”
“I think these values issues are really, really important,” Christine said in an interview with the Daily Signal. “I do believe they’re winning issues. I do believe these are issues the vast majority of Americans agree with us on.”
The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health last month terminated $67 million in teenage pregnancy prevention grants for “sexually explicit” curricula that promoted pornography, contraception, gender ideology, and abortion to middle and high school-aged audiences.
“Ultimately, we in the administration, are here to serve, we’re here to serve our republic and the people, the citizens of our republic,” Christine said. “People do care about these things, so we are putting emphasis on these things.”
On June 10, the HHS office revised a grant program to treat frozen embryos created through in vitro fertilization as human children. Christine also promised to make sure federal dollars aren’t funding abortion.
“Federal dollars, obviously, should never ever go to abortion, abortion counseling, abortion services,” he said. “Federal dollars should be used to promote the health of the country and the health of the citizens in this country.”
Christine slammed Planned Parenthood for offering so-called gender-affirming care to minors but not supporting detransitioners, people who regret altering their bodies in an attempt to change their sex. The Department of Health and Human Services issued a report last May on the dangers of experimental transgender medical interventions referred to as “gender-affirming care.”
“It illustrates so much of what’s happening from Planned Parenthood, for instance, ‘No, we can’t help you now that you have these problems after, after you’ve been sold the lies of gender-affirming care,’ but we’ll be happy to provide you more hormones or more surgery,’” he said. “Really perverse, really perverse.”