Former Planned Parenthood president warns against California's medical misinformation bill

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Former Planned Parenthood president Leana Wen gave a dire warning in a Monday op-ed that California’s bill, regardless of its intention, can actually hurt the medical system rather than reform it.

"One of the many lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic is that misinformation can be deadly," Wen recalled. She stated that mentality is in California's AB 2098, a bill she describes as one, "that passed the California legislature and is waiting to be signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom." 

She further noted that, "The measure would make California the first state that could take legal action against health-care professionals for conveying false information about COVID-19 and its treatments."

While she did not ascribe bad faith to the people pushing the bill, she warned that it would have disastrous results.

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Dr. Leana Wen, is the new president of Planned Parenthood. She is photographed at the Baltimore City Health Department on Monday, October 01, 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland.  (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

"While well-intentioned, this legislation will have a chilling effect on medical practice, with widespread repercussions that could paradoxically worsen patient care," she suggested.

She illustrated how the bill could end up punishing doctors who are acting with the best of intentions.

"AB 2098, taken to the extreme, could put many practitioners at risk. But is it really right for physicians to be threatened with suspension or revocation of their license for offering nuanced guidance on a complex issue that is hardly settled by existing science?" she asked.

Wen also recounted one of the most contentious aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the week-to-week overhauls of COVID-19 guidance policies from experts and government officials. 

The COVID-19 virus' nature was hotly debated from the very beginning of the pandemic's spread to the United States. (iStock)

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"Indeed, another lesson from COVID is that science is constantly evolving. In a public health emergency, official guidance often lags cutting-edge research," Wen recalled. "Consider how long it took the CDC to acknowledge that the coronavirus is airborne. Should doctors have been censured for recommending N95 masks before they were accepted as an effective method for reducing virus transmission?"

Wen followed by claiming that the bill, if anything, was similar to a Trump-era policy.

"In a way, though the California bill was introduced by Democratic legislators, it is not unlike the Trump administration’s Title X ‘gag rule,’ which barred health-care providers who worked in clinics that received federal funding from referring patients for abortion care," she recounted. "I strongly opposed the Title X gag rule for the same reason I oppose AB 2098: Both censor what doctors can say to our patients. Both represent political interference with the practice of medicine."

Policies on masks were one of the major controversies that divided Americans, with experts debating whether or not they were actually effective at preventing the virus' spread. (iStock)

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She concluded her piece by warning that "California’s bill is a recipe for medical practice to be subject to the whims of partisan politics."

Wen has dissented with many liberals on handling COVID-19 before, declaring in a previous op-ed for The Post that she will be sending her kids back to school this fall, a major turnaround from her earlier rhetoric on the lockdown.

"I began trying to think of the coronavirus as I do other everyday risks, such as falls, car accidents or drowning," she noted. "Of course I want to shield my children from injuries, and I take precautions, such as using car seats and teaching them how to swim. By the same logic, I vaccinated them against the coronavirus. But I won’t put their childhood on hold in an effort to eliminate all risk."