Former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona told Congress this week that the Bush administration blocked him from speaking out on controversial issues.
He told a congressional committee, “The reality is that the ‘nation’s doctor’ has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget and with supervisors who are political appointees with partisan agendas.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Carmona said he hadn’t been permitted to talk about the importance of comprehensive sex education, emergency contraception, or the science of embryonic stem cell research.
Carmona was surgeon general from 2002 until August 2006.
Congress is now holding hearings for the man the Bush administration has nominated to be the new surgeon general. The Wall Street Journal reported, “He is likely to be questioned about what critics say are antigay views.”