TN: Pro Life Gov appointed pro abortion ally to head Dept of Health

Tennessee Right to Life Expresses

Concern at Haslam Health Pick

Dreyzehner Apparent Ally of Abortion-Promoting Planned Parenthood

Governor Haslam's announcement today of Dr. John Dreyzehner drew quick response from the state's leading pro-life organization which says Dreyzehner's close association with a leading pro-abortion advocacy organization calls into question his suitability for the state's top medical post.

According to Tennessee Right to Life, Dreyzehner was a featured presenter earlier this year at a conference of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA), a group which, according to its website, exists to promote "reproductive freedom" and to lobby for unlimited abortion and the expansion of tax payer funding for agencies such as Planned Parenthood.  That nationwide group calls itself 'the voice for family planning' and stresses the importance of "strengthening the Title X program," an effort by the federal government which directs millions of tax dollars annually to Planned Parenthood affiliates around the nation.

Earlier this year during a 2011 NFPRHA conference, Dreyzehner joined a leading pro-abortion lobbyist, Rachel Benson Gold, to present a session entitled "Family Planning Workforce Challenges." The seminar focused on assisting "reproductive health" agencies to position themselves to take full benefit of the coming federal health care programs. Benson Gold serves as public policy analyst for the Washington-based Guttmacher Institute, a group which strongly opposes pro-life legislation and which was originally organized as a research arm of Planned Parenthood.

Tennessee Right to Life has expressed deep disappointment in the Governor's pick.

  

"After a legislative session in which pro-life majorities made clear their desire to bar the use of tax dollars for agencies such as Planned Parenthood, it appears that the Governor has invited a fox into the henhouse," said Brian Harris, president of Tennessee Right to Life. "Dreyzehner's active involvement with an organization so radically supportive of abortion makes clear that pro-life Tennesseans will have a continued fight in order to enforce even the most basic pro-life protections for unborn children and abortion vulnerable women in our state," said Harris.