September 27, 2017
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has provided a draft of its FY 2018 – 2022 Strategic Plan for comments. The draft is a part of the strategic planning process under the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 and gives agency stakeholders an opportunity to provide comments on the plan.
The strategic planning consultation process is an opportunity to refine and strengthen the HHS Strategic Plan FY 2018 – 2022.
Comments may be provided for each goal and objective. Please submit your comments by October 26, 2017.
I object to framing of HHS strategic objectives to include the phrase "from conception" in five places in the document. I would note that this phrase was not included in previous editions of the document. Human life, as defined as protected human life, does not begin at conception. While universal prenatal care for pregnant mothers is an admirable goal, it is an obvious political distortion to include the protections "to all persons from conception" in the strategic document, and I ask that those words be replaced with "from birth" in all instances in the document. I also ask that universal prenatal care for pregnant mothers be added as a strategic goal as a replacement.