Trump administration reportedly prohibits CDC from using words like 'transgender,' 'fetus'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FILE: CDC headquarters in Atlanta. A report said the agency got list of forbidden words from the Trump administration. (Reuters)
Analysts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were reportedly told that the Trump administration is prohibiting the agency from using seven words or phrases that include “transgender” and “fetus.”
The Washington Post, citing an analyst at the meeting in Atlanta, reported that the ban is related to the 2019 budget that is given to Congress and CDC’s partners.
The report said the forbidden words are “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence –based” and “science-based.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The CDC and the Office of Management and Budget did not respond to the paper, but the paper cited another unnamed official who confirmed the list’s existence. The report said that analysts were, in some cases, given alternate wording for the phrases.
In the case of “science-based” and “evidence-based,” the analyst said a substitute phrase was: “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes."
CDC, the nation's top public health agency, is the only federal agency headquartered outside of Washington, D.C. It has nearly 12,000 employees, and about three-quarters of them are based in the Atlanta area.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The analyst told the paper that they "could not recall a previous time when words were banned from budget documents" due to ideology.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report