Dr. David Weldon [WITHDRAWN]

As CDC Director, Weldon would have led agency activities to improve environmental health and advance the health of the American people, including by developing and implementing policies to ensure infectious disease prevention and control. Notably, CDC also collects abortion data through vital statistics. Project 2025 calls for a major expansion of the CDC’s abortion surveillance, asking every state to report exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age, for what reason, the pregnant person’s state of residence, by what method, and any complications. Project 2025 also recommends making this reporting mandatory and weaponizing Medicaid funding as means of enforcement, putting patients and providers under increased surveillance and potential risk of criminalization.

• Most well known for the Weldon Amendment, an anti-abortion federal appropriations rider that can be weaponized to prevent states from enforcing laws that protect abortion access.
• Voted in favor of dozens of bills restricting reproductive rights while in the House of Representatives, including legislation to defund Planned Parenthood.
• Promoted the junk science theories that abortion contributes to breast cancer and that fetuses feel pain, as well as anti-vaccine conspiracy theories.

Weldon served Florida’s 15th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995-2009. 

• He is most well known for the eponymous Weldon Amendment, a “conscience clause” first included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2005. Since then, this clause has been added to annual government funding bills each year, continuing to bar health agencies from “discriminating against” hospitals or health insurance plans that choose not to provide or pay for abortions. 

• Sponsored the Weldon Patenting Amendment, prohibiting the patenting of human organisms (including genetically engineered embryos and fetuses) and codifying as federal policy the understanding that human life is not a commodity.
• Sponsored the Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001, which would have prevented the creation of cloned human embryos for destructive research or for reproduction. The bill was passed by the House but the Senate did not consider it.
• Introduced the Vaccine Safety and Public Confidence Assurance Act of 2007, reinforcing his support for anti-vaccine conspiracy theories by aiming to transfer responsibility for vaccine safety from the CDC to a new independent agency within HHS. 

Throughout his time in Congress, Weldon claims to have a 100% pro-life voting record, including multiple votes to defund reproductive health care providers like Planned Parenthood and the below.

• Voted to pass the “Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003,” which was signed into law by President George W. Bush.
  • “Partial-birth abortion” is an inflammatory nonmedical term for dilation and extraction (D&X) procedures, a method of abortion used later in pregnancy. 
• Voted to suspend the rules and pass the “Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2006,” a biased counseling bill which would have (1) forced providers to inform patients seeking care at or after 20 weeks of pregnancy that there is “substantial evidence” that a fetus may feel pain during the procedure and (2) forced patients to read and sign a statement with inflammatory, dubiously “scientific” rhetoric.
• Voted to pass the “Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act,” a bill that would have criminalized the transportation of pregnant minors across state lines to obtain abortion care. While the bill was also passed by the Senate, it was never signed into law or enacted.

Consistently used false and inflammatory rhetoric on abortion, such as:

• On Roe v. Wade
  • “Our nation’s founders determined from the very outset, that America would be a society that fosters a culture of life. Indeed, out of the three unalienable rights that Jefferson highlighted, ‘life’ was the first listed. Sadly, that God-given right was ignored 35 years ago when the Supreme Court struck down state laws restricting abortion, and thus incited a tragic domino effect that has led to over 50 million abortions across America.”
  • “But while the conflict continues and lives still hang in the balance, there is also reason to pause and be thankful. In the last 35 years, millions of Americans have rallied to amplify the voice of unborn children and promoted the American culture of life. This effort is one of highest import, and our struggle is not in vain. Every life ended is one too many.” 
  • “We can be grateful that the progress continues as more Americans are choosing life and supporting the decision of those who do. So, while we saddened over the 50 million Americans who are not with us today as a direct result of that fateful Supreme Court decision 35 years ago, we also look to the future, when every American will enjoy the right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” From official press release.
  • The Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Decision
is the greatest assault on human life.” From official issue position on the “sanctity of life.”
• On the Weldon Amendment
  • “The policy simply states that health care entities should not be forced to provide elective abortion—a practice to which a majority of health care providers object and which they will not perform as a matter of conscience. But while 45 States and the Federal Government protect the right of health care provider to decline involvement in abortion, abortion advocates are working to abolish these legal protections. Abortion advocates have launched a campaign to force hospitals and other health care entities to provide, refer, and pay for abortions. They argue that the term ‘health care entity’ only covers individuals and not institutions. They have also argued that because an entity receives Federal funds they are required to provide abortions. By twisting the law they have successfully used the courts and State and local governments to violate the objections to abortions of health care entities and providers. This is why we need to strengthen Federal protections against discrimination based on objections to abortion. The right of conscience is fundamental to our American freedoms. We should guarantee this freedom by protecting all health care providers from being required to perform, refer, or pay for elective abortions.” From Congressional Record transcript.
  • “This is a continuation of the Hyde policy of conscience protection. The reason I sought to include this provision in the bill is my experience as a physician, and I still see patients, is that the majority of nurses, technicians and doctors who claim to be pro-choice who claim to support Roe v. Wade always say to me that they would never want to participate in an abortion, perform an abortion, or be affiliated with doing an abortion. This provision is meant to protect health care entities from discrimination because they choose not to provide abortion services.” From Congressional Record transcript.
• On the California Attorney General suing the federal government over the Weldon Amendment:
  • Using emergency medical care to justify the coercion of health care providers to perform abortions is a red herring and is a contrived circumstance designed to advance [California’s] political agenda. It’s recycling the same old scare tactics. […] Unfortunately, under the ‘pro-choice’ vision of choice, no tolerance is afforded toward health care entities that desire their rights of conscience be respected and this is perfectly demonstrated in this challenge to my amendment. The Left seems to be saying that their mantra regarding abortion is ‘Safe, legal and coerced.’” From official press release.
  • “People who call themselves prochoice want no tolerance afforded toward health care entities that desire their rights of conscience be respected. Sadly, radical abortion advocates only support choice on their terms and are more than willing to use the coercive power of government to advance their agenda. Their true mantra seems to be: safe, legal, and coerced. It is predictable that abortion advocates would look to the courts to enforce their bizarre notion that abortion should not be provided just by the willing but also the unwilling, and that is just what has happened today.” 
  • “The bottom line is that this lawsuit seems to be more about politics and using the coercive power of the state for forced participation in abortion, rather than ensuring that pregnant women in emergency situations have access to life-saving care.” From Congressional Record transcript.
• On the “Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act”
  • “The House has debated the Partial Birth Abortion Ban for three years in a row, and each time has overwhelmingly voted to outlaw this barbaric procedure. Each year, I have worked tirelessly to outlaw this horrific operation. Not only is the result a dead baby, but women’s health is in tremendous jeopardy here. Women who undergo this procedure are at risk for serious medical consequences.”
  • “As I doctor, I know first hand that a pre-born child feels pain—in this procedure the pre-delivered baby undoubtedly feels extreme pain. The abortion industry would have us believe that the partial birth abortion procedure is rare. However, the current estimates put this as high as 10,000 killings per year. I believe that the most important indicator of a civilized society is how it treats its weakest and most defenseless population. And I cannot think of a weaker or more defenseless person than a baby in the mother’s womb. It is indeed a grim comment on western civilization when we kill humans of any age.”
  • “This is not a religious issue, it is a human issue. The distance between life and death for these babies is a mere three inches. Since Roe v. Wade we have seen 35 million abortions in this nation. The value of human life has been debased in our civilization to the point where animals have protective rights where humans do not. We are knee-deep in a culture of death.” From official press release.
• On the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act of 2006
  • “We are talking about the bill to ban the procedure called fetal farming. […] It is a modest, but important, update to the Waxman 1993 fetal tissue research prohibitions. These laws, as developed in the 1990s, attempt to protect women from being coerced into having an abortion for the purpose of providing fetal tissue for research. What they were trying to do is say you can only use voluntarily aborted fetal tissue. Then, as now, the concern was that women would be exploited[…] And we will draw a line in the sand to say we are not going to take this whole area of tissue therapies into the realm of where we are exploiting fetuses.” From Congressional Record transcript.
• On the “Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2006”
  • “I rise to speak in support of [the ‘Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2006’] and just raise the point, based on my review of the medical literature as a physician and these are very well published reports, there is abundant evidence that the neuropathways that generate pain responses are present at 20 or 22 weeks, possibly well before that. […] But I think the scientific evidence is overwhelming” From Congressional Record transcript.
• On conspiracy theories linking preservatives in vaccines to autism
  • “The number one question has been whether neurologic problems were caused in some children by the high levels of a mercury containing additive that was included in our vaccines in the 1990s.”
  • “This report will not deter me nor the autism community from our commitment to see that thimerosal and MMR research is properly done. This report will do nothing to put to rest the concerns of parents who believe their children were harmed by mercury-containing vaccines or the MMR vaccine.”  
  • “The way the CDC and the Institute of Medicine and the industry is going about trying to answer these questions is highly flawed. Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to begin to look at this issue. I know that many of them are coming to me saying they have parents coming in their offices now with autistic kids, saying something needs to be done. Something needs to be done.” From Congressional Record transcript.
• On false link between abortion and breast cancer
  • In August 1999, Weldon circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter to his fellow Representatives citing “numerous studies . . . demonstrating a statistical link between induced abortion and the occurrence of breast cancer” and urging them to “consider for yourself the scientific evidence, and judge whether Congress and this Administration have a duty to ensure that women know all the facts on abortion.”
  • “As legislators, we also have an ethical responsibility to ensure that we are not facilitating or promoting a procedure which poses a significant health risk to women. Approximately 1.5 million abortions are performed each year in the United States, making the prospect of increased breast cancer cases a health care time-bomb.” From Dear Colleague letter.

• Weldon has donated to the National Right to Life Victory Fund.
• As a Congressman, Weldon was rated 100% by the National Right to Life Committee and the Christian Coalition.
  • In contrast, he was rated 0% by Reproductive Freedom for All, 0% by the Human Rights Committee, 7% by the ACLU, and 19% by the NAACP.