Senior Policy Advisor at the Office of Global Affairs; Former Senior Policy Advisor for the Assistant Secretary for Health (HHS)
Appointed: 6-6-2017Who is Valerie Huber?
A staunch advocate of abstinence-only programs, Valerie Huber made large-scale efforts to prevent young people from accessing and getting information about sexual and reproductive health. After several positions at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) — including a stint steering HHS’s family planning funds — in January 2019 the Trump-Pence administration moved Huber to its Office of Global Affairs, which coordinates diplomacy and related efforts on health with other countries.
“Abstinence education is a great way to get to the end of abortion in our lifetime.”
Tell Congress: Support women’s health worldwide. End the global gag rule.
What Valerie Huber Controlled
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
HHS is charged with protecting the health of all Americans, including through promoting global health security and diplomacy. The Trump-Pence administration has slowly reshaped HHS to roll back reproductive rights and limit access to health care.
Related Policies
Title X
Planned Parenthood
Sex Education
Censorship
Background on Valerie Huber
Promoting Abstinence Until Marriage
Valerie Huber previously served as president of an abstinence-only advocacy group — even though abstinence-only programs have proven to be harmful and ineffective.
Business InsiderUnder Valerie Huber’s leadership at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, HHS worked to increase funding for ineffective abstinence-only programs. At the department’s Office of Global Affairs, Huber was expected to promote abstinence-only programs globally, as well as cut references to global sexual and reproductive health from HHS’s international documents and webpages — including from international health and human rights documents.
PoliticoUnder Huber’s watch, the Trump administration created the Geneva Consensus Declaration — which aimed to undermine same-sex marriage and restrict abortion access by declaring “no international right” to abortion. It built on the work of the Commission on Unalienable Rights, a sham effort to redefine human rights, and aligned with the administration’s repeated attacks on access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care like the global gag rule.
Huffington PostJust two months after Valerie Huber joined HHS, the agency cut funding for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program — a federal initiative proven to increase safer sex and help young people prevent unintended pregnancy.
The HillValerie Huber was temporarily put in charge of Title X when the Trump-Pence administration shifted the program’s focus away from sex education and birth control, and toward abstinence-only programming and natural family planning — like the rhythm method.
Planned Parenthood Action Blog