CDC banned words include 'diversity', 'transgender' and 'fetus' – report

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been told that words and phrases including “fetus”, “diversity”, “transgender” and “science-based” have been deemed inappropriate for use in budget reports.

According to the Washington Post, policy analysts at the federal public health watchdog were told in a meeting with senior officials on Thursday that seven words or phrases would be banned from use in the documents: “vulnerable”, “entitlement”, “diversity”, “transgender”, “fetus”, “evidence-based” and “science-based”.

Quoting an unnamed analyst present at the meeting, the Post said analysts were given alternatives. Instead of “science-based”, for example, CDC staff were told to use “science in consideration with community standards and wishes”.

Women’s rights groups and LGBT activists said the report reflected the low regard in which issues of sexual orientation, gender identity and abortion rights are held in the Trump administration.

Planned Parenthood, the federal women’s healthcare provider whose funding has been targeted by Republicans in Congress and the Trump White House, issued a statement: “It’s clearer than ever: this administration has disdained women’s health, LGBTQ people and science since day one.”

The reported guidelines are similar to directives issued to other agencies under the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), regarding the collection of information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.

Information about LGBT Americans has been removed from the HHS website, the Post said, including a page from the Administration for Children and Families site that described federal services available to LGBT people.

Two months ago, the New York Times reported that information relating to global warming had been removed from the website of the Environmental Protection Agency. Links to materials meant to help officials prepare for climate change-related issues such as rising temperatures and more severe storms had been removed, the Times reported.

An official in the CDC office of financial services told analysts she was merely relaying information about the banned words, the Post reported.

No directive about banned language has been issued to the 12,000 CDC employees, the Post said, adding that a source within the agency said the ban would probably trigger a backlash as analysts work on the 2019 CDC budget, which is expected to be released in February.

“Our subject matter experts will not lay down quietly,” the source said. “This hasn’t trickled down to them yet.”

One CDC analyst told the Post they could not recall any other time when budget documents were altered because their language was considered controversial. The reaction of people attending the meeting, the analyst said, was: ‘Are you serious? Are you kidding?’

The source added: “In my experience, we’ve never had any pushback from an ideological standpoint.”