Acting Attorney General says anti-abortion victory will be ‘soon’ and ‘permanent’
Dr. Erica Schwartz was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this month, but the commitments she made during her confirmation hearing have drawn fresh scrutiny — particularly her pledge to treat abortion data collection as central to the agency’s mission.
During the July hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican and anti-abortion lawmaker who has sought to ban the abortion pill mifepristone nationwide, pressed Schwartz on abortion surveillance. “The CDC collects data on abortions that are committed in the United States of America through a system called the Abortion Reporting System,” Hawley said, noting that the system is voluntary and that “a number of states, not coincidentally large blue states, do not turn over any data.” He added: “We do know the numbers are going, way up.”
“Senator, you have my commitment,” Schwartz replied. “Abortion surveillance is absolutely a critical component of what the CDC is currently doing.” She added that she wanted to make sure “certain states are not conflating emergency services and hiding abortions in that emergency services case definition,” and that the agency needed “clear case definitions regarding abortions so the data is actually accurate.” Hawley replied: “Tremendous.”
According to the Guttmacher Institute, 44 states plus Washington DC have some form of mandated abortion reporting. The Guardian reported that New York requires abortion reporting only when a patient makes a request related to the disposition of the fetus’s remains.
Schwartz, who served as deputy surgeon general during President Donald Trump’s first term, is the first Black woman to lead the CDC and the agency’s first permanent director in almost a year, according to The Guardian. Her predecessor, Susan Monarez, lasted 29 days before being removed after clashing with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy, the outlet reported. During her hearing, when asked about vaccines, Schwartz said she “will never betray the science,” according to The Guardian, which reported that she did not specify how she would handle pressure from Kennedy. Trump has called Schwartz “a STAR.”
Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, said in a statement that Schwartz’s testimony “should alarm everyone who believes private medical decisions belong to patients, not politicians.” Under the Trump administration, Timmaraju said, “abortion surveillance could be expanded or weaponized to collect more intrusive information, spread disinformation about reproductive health care, and support efforts to investigate or criminalize patients and providers.”
In a separate development, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told religious groups on a private call that efforts to reverse the Biden administration’s abortion protections were “taking longer than we want,” according to The Guardian. “We don’t have complete victory yet, but we will have victory, and victory will be soon, and it will be permanent,” Blanche said on the call, the outlet reported.
The Senate confirmed Schwartz in a 51-44 vote on August 5, as MSI previously reported, making her the first permanent CDC director since the removal of Susan Monarez.