Virginia Anti-Abortion Lobbyist Married To Top State Health Official Who Helped Draft Clinic

[cal04]

Virginia Anti-Abortion Lobbyist Married To Top State Health Official Who Helped Draft Clinic Regulations
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2011/08/31/308921/virginia-anti-abortion-lobbyist-married-to-top-state-health-official-who-helped-draft-clinic-regulations/

Last week Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) released harsh new anti-abortion regulations that could shut down the state’s exisiting abortion clinics. Now the Huffington Post is reporting there may have been a conflict of interest in McDonnell’s administration over the regulations. Matt Cobb, deputy secretary of health and human resources, helps lead the office that will interpret the regulations. He is also married to Victoria Cobb, a prominent anti-abortion lobbyist in the state who has spent years lobbying for clinic regulations like the ones just released:

Victoria Cobb, president of the right-wing Family Foundation of Virginia, has been lobbying state lawmakers for the past decade to pass legislation that would force the Department of Health to release abortion clinic regulations like those adopted by South Carolina in 1996 that reduced the number of clinics in the state from 14 to 3.

Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, told the Huffington Post that Matt Cobb sat in on meetings discussing the regulations with her and her colleagues:

“People who have been dealing with these issues find it odd that he’s in those meetings about the regulations,” Keene told HuffPost. “I find it really intriguing to think that the premiere anti-abortion advocate is basically married to the person who’s now in charge of implementing the clinic regulations, and he’s involved every step of the way.”


more at link

[Lars39]

1. k&r just for the phrase, "conflict of interest"....you don't see that phrase

enough these days.