The FFRF Action Fund has signed on to a letter sent by the National Women’s Law Center to oppose the confirmation of Trump nominee T. March Bell to the position of inspector general in the Department of Health and Human Services.
During the first Trump administration, Bell helped create the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division within HHS. This division created an avenue for health care providers to invoke their personal religious beliefs to deny others health care.
Bell is a staunch anti-abortion advocate, too. In 2015, he was chief counsel for a $1.6 million investigation into Planned Parenthood to determine whether the organization was profiting off donated fetal tissues. The investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing. He also has ties to a number of anti-abortion extremists.
Bell’s record presents serious ethical concerns for a nominee to a position focused on preventing fraud within HHS. In 1997, he resigned from a job at a Virginia state agency after a legislative audit uncovered an $8,000 payment to a former employee that Bell couldn’t justify.
Bell, if confirmed, would hold “a critical responsibility in protecting the integrity of HHS programs as well as the health and welfare of the people HHS serves,” the letter states. “It is difficult to believe that Mr. Bell has developed the unbiased, moral, and ethical character necessary for the role of inspector general.”
FFRF Action Fund President Annie Laurie Gaylor notes her group’s concerns about Bell’s willingness to uphold the First Amendment’s separation between state and church. “The nomination of a clear partisan candidate to a position with a critical role in stopping waste, fraud and abuse continues an alarming trend from the Trump administration,” she says.
FFRF Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) organization that develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church. It also advocates for the rights and views of nonbelievers, endorses candidates for political office, and publicizes the views of elected officials concerning religious liberty issues.