Palin official ‘forced out’ over abortion issue

The Director of the Alaska Department of Health and Human Services says she was forced out of her job due to differences with Gov. Sarah Palin on abortion policy.

Beverly Wooley, who has served in various public health positions in Alaska for 20 years, left her job this week after butting heads with Palin and her aides over a parental notification policy making its way through the state legislature.

The policy would require minors to notify their parents (but not get their consent) before getting an abortion. While preparing to testify about the policy before the state Senate, Wooley was reportedly less enthusiastic in her support for the measure than Palin and her aides would have preferred.

“I think frankly this is something we have to deal with within our department when your personal values don’t line up with where the governor wants to go, you’ve just got to reconcile that somehow,” Bill Hogan, Alaska’s Health Commissioner, told the Alaska Budget Report.

Wooley told the Anchorage Daily News that she was prepared to articulate Palin’s position but also wanted to cite studies from other states in which parental notification or consent laws have resulted in minors seeking abortions later in their pregnancy or not at all.

“You let those facts speak for themselves. And truly, people will interpret those facts differently based on their own personal history and experience,” Wooley said.

Eventually, Wooley was asked to resign.

“She felt she just couldn’t get up there [in committee] and articulate the governor’s position,” said Hogan. “She asked, ‘Suppose the data or the scientific information says something different–can I say that?’ I said, ‘Yes, but when it comes to saying the governor’s position, you need to say that.’ It just became more and more apparent that she could not get up there and do it.”

Wooley is the second health official to leave her job in recent weeks. In late June, after Wooley had been asked to step down, chief medical officer Jay Butler resigned after refusing to take on Wooley’s job in addition to his own.