The Governor is Attempting to fill the DHHS with Anti-Abortion Crusaders

[TexasTowelie]

The state public health department is being overtaken for political reasons in yet another effort by the governor to attack family planning and public health in general. And in true NEGOP fashion, this clumsy takeover is being attempted with poor grammar, bad spelling, and plain old nonsensical ramblings..

A global pandemic placed public health in the spotlight for the last several months, but prior to Covid-19, public health funding had been cut and programming had been attacked for decades. In particular, Nebraska Title X (family planning) funding has been attacked from the right on several occasions to varying degrees of “success” by Ricketts-funded groups like the fanatical misogynist Catholic anti-gay hate group the Nebraska Family Alliance.

Over the last six months, public health staff have been stretched beyond their capacity to respond to the Coronavirus pandemic and to protect the health and lives of fellow Nebraskans.

The efforts by the DHHS to serve all Nebraskans have been interrupted incessantly. Whether it was the no-bid contract for TestNebraska without upfront clear data sharing structure back to DHHS to complete contact tracing, lack of support and even overt hostility from the governor on implementation of community safety measures (half-assed, unenforced DHMs, no statewide stay-at-home order, and no statewide mask mandate), complete disregard for public health expertise, or any of the other anti-science efforts that have occurred, one thing is certain: ensuring the public’s health in Nebraska is a lot harder than it should be simply due to lack of leadership.

Read more: http://seeingrednebraska.com/misogyny/the-governor-is-attempting-to-fill-the-dhhs-with-anti-abortion-crusaders/