To: Terry McAuliffe, Virginia Governor-Elect
Don't rehire Gov. Bob McDonnell's secretary of Health and Human Resources.
When reproductive rights and women's votes help you win an election, don't turn around and keep a cabinet official who helped Governor Bob McDonnell come up with a more politically palatable way to restrict access to abortion, by requiring patients get costly and medically unnecessary ultrasounds.
Why is this important?
Women's votes and reproductive rights were decisive in Virginia's gubernatorial election, securing Terry McAuliffe's victory over anti-choice Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.
But shortly after this victory, people started hearing that McAuliffe was thinking about keeping on Dr. Bill Hazel, Gov. McDonnell's Health and Human Resources secretary, in his own administration. [1] Hazel is privately credited with helping put together a less politically damaging version of Virginia's mandatory ultrasound law, which Gov. McDonnell ultimately signed.
Is this the kind of administration McAuliffe's supporters were hoping for? Stand with us to ask Governor-Elect McAuliffe to remember the people he's representing as he picks a Health and Human Resources secretary of his own.
[1] - "Terry McAuliffe Considers Retaining Gov. Bob McDonnell’s Secretary of Health," by Erin Matson, RH Reality Check, December 12, 2013
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/12/12/terry-mcauliffe-considers-retaining-gov-bob-mcdonnells-secretary-of-health/