Kellyanne Conway was a Republican pollster when she appeared at a 2009 news conference, flanked by more than a dozen people in white doctors’ coats, to unveil surveys she conducted on religious freedom and medicine. Conway had been hired by the Christian Medical and Dental Associations to bolster the groups’ position that doctors and nurses shouldn’t be required to perform procedures, including abortions, to which they morally objected.Story Continued Below “Who among us would want a medical professional to perform a technique or provide a service with which they were personally uncomfortable and to which they personally objected?” Conway asked during the news conference in a National Press Club conference room. Her data backed up that view: nearly nine out of 10 respondents said medical professionals have “almost an inalienable right” to such objections, she said. A decade later, Conway’s polling is getting results. Late last week, the Health and Human Services Department unveiled a regulation that empowers doctors and other health workers to decline care that violates their beliefs. The 440-page rule cites Conway’s years-old polling, including another she conducted in 2011, a dozen times. No other surveys are cited more frequently — and no other data is more central to the Trump administration’s arguments. POLITICO Pulse newsletter Get the latest on the health care fight, every weekday morning — in your inbox. By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. Today, Conway, a senior White House adviser to the president, is known best as a cheerfully combative and steadfastly loyal defender of President Donald Trump, sparring at length with the likes of CNN’s Chris Cuomo, and famously invoking “alternative facts” in a bid to explain the administration’s false statements. But the prominent use of her polling in a relatively obscure federal rule — albeit one that has aroused passions on the right — is a reminder of her long pre-Trump career partnering with anti-abortion and conservative groups, a legacy that is still quietly resonating as the president courts evangelical voters. Conway told POLITICO that she didn’t work directly on the new HHS rule, and two administration officials insisted that her polling was not cited because of her role as a top Trump adviser. Yet the regulation’s reliance on years-old polling that was conducted before the U.S. health system underwent a series of significant reforms has alarmed some public health groups and regulatory experts. “This rule, and what [the Trump administration] does next to enforce it, will have a profound effect on vulnerable people nationwide,” said Katie Keith, a Georgetown law professor who’s tracked the health department’s regulations. “That leaves a lot riding on very old survey data — and the assumptions that HHS officials make because of it.” The rule would expand health workers ability to decline care that
How Kellyanne Conway influenced a new Trump rule cheered by religious conservatives
Kellyanne Conway was a Republican pollster when she appeared at a 2009 news conference, flanked by more than a dozen people in white doctors’ coats, to unveil surveys she conducted on religious freedom and medicine. Conway had been hired by the Christian Medical and Dental Associations to bolster the groups’ position that doctors and nurses shouldn’t be required to perform procedures, including abortions, to which they morally objected.Story Continued Below “Who among us would want a medical professional to perform a technique or provide a service with which they were personally uncomfortable and to which they personally objected?” Conway asked during the news conference in a National Press Club conference room. Her data backed up that view: nearly nine out of 10 respondents said medical professionals have “almost an inalienable right” to such objections, she said. A decade later, Conway’s polling is getting results. Late last week, the Health and Human Services Department unveiled a regulation that empowers doctors and other health workers to decline care that violates their beliefs. The 440-page rule cites Conway’s years-old polling, including another she conducted in 2011, a dozen times. No other surveys are cited more frequently — and no other data is more central to the Trump administration’s arguments. POLITICO Pulse newsletter Get the latest on the health care fight, every weekday morning — in your inbox. By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. Today, Conway, a senior White House adviser to the president, is known best as a cheerfully combative and steadfastly loyal defender of President Donald Trump, sparring at length with the likes of CNN’s Chris Cuomo, and famously invoking “alternative facts” in a bid to explain the administration’s false statements. But the prominent use of her polling in a relatively obscure federal rule — albeit one that has aroused passions on the right — is a reminder of her long pre-Trump career partnering with anti-abortion and conservative groups, a legacy that is still quietly resonating as the president courts evangelical voters. Conway told POLITICO that she didn’t work directly on the new HHS rule, and two administration officials insisted that her polling was not cited because of her role as a top Trump adviser. Yet the regulation’s reliance on years-old polling that was conducted before the U.S. health system underwent a series of significant reforms has alarmed some public health groups and regulatory experts. “This rule, and what [the Trump administration] does next to enforce it, will have a profound effect on vulnerable people nationwide,” said Katie Keith, a Georgetown law professor who’s tracked the health department’s regulations. “That leaves a lot riding on very old survey data — and the assumptions that HHS officials make because of it.” The rule would expand health workers ability to decline care that
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