The medical director of the Texas Medical Board (TMB) resigned after proceedings against a Texas doctor revealed he also worked for Planned Parenthood of South Texas.
Robert Bredt, M.D., a pathologist, had been employed by the TMB since 2012, while also working part-time since 2011 as medical director of the Planned Parenthood laboratory in San Antonio.
In a letter to board officials on January 7 which has since been removed from the internet, Bredt stated he felt “forced to retire/resign at this time.”
“It seems a shame that political pressure from a fringe group has
jeopardized that career,” Bredt wrote in his resignation letter.
Two state legislators had called for Bredt’s firing.
Revealed in Court Filing
Bredt’s work for the Planned Parenthood lab was revealed in his curriculum vitae when the TMB’s legal staff submitted it to an administrative law judge on December 23 in a public legal filing to designate Bredt as an expert witness in a case against Mary Talley Bowden, M.D., president of Americans for Health Freedom, a group opposed to vaccine mandates.
Texas State Rep. Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park) called on the TMB to fire Bredt, in a press release on December 30.
“Having someone with a leadership role at a criminal organization such as Planned Parenthood simultaneously serving in a prominent regulatory position erodes public trust and creates an undeniable conflict of interest,” said Cain.
‘Fox in the Henhouse’
On December 31, State Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian) wrote to Gov. Greg Abbott, who appoints the TMB board members, stating, “This fox must be removed from guardianship of the henhouse.” (See related article)
“I also ask that you direct all state agencies to ensure there are no other Planned Parenthood officials employed by any state agency, including in advisory roles,” Harrison wrote to Abbott.
Bredt received an annual salary of $185,000 in his TMB position.
“There’s some real irony here in that in their zeal to prosecute a doctor, they had to make public that the medical director … is literally also a Planned Parenthood employee,” Harrison told The Texas Tribune, an Austin news outlet, for a story on January 7.
News Outlet Investigates
The Dallas Express (DX), which covered Bowden’s case,had previously “obtained emails showing that numerous figures inside the organization had been watching Bowden since she first rose to national prominence in 2021 for criticizing COVID-19 policy, including COVID-19 vaccine mandates,” the web-based news outlet reported on January 15.
DX obtained board emails from 2021 that showed how the board pursued complaints against Bowden for prescribing ivermectin to treat infections and for failing to establish what the board defined as a proper doctor/patient relationship with individuals when she advised them through social media on alternatives to the COVID-19 vaccines.
Strange Coincidence
In an allegedly separate action, Bowden received a notice stating the TMB was conducting a random audit of her continuing medical education (CME) hours, on October 17, 2024, nine days after she was deposed by TMB attorneys.
“I’ve never been audited before, and it’s hard for me to believe this happened randomly,” Bowden told The Dallas Express in mid-October 2024.
Using the state’s public information act, DX sought TMB records and determined the likelihood of a CME audit for a doctor was less than 0.25 percent. TMI told DX the audit was proper.
To verify that claim, DX filed a request for more documents. After paying TMB $150 to access the records, three weeks out on January 15, TMB had not fulfilled the request.
DX said it would report the TMB to the Texas Attorney General’s office in its article on January 15. There has been no updated report.
States Versus Doctors
Bowden is one of several physicians who have been pursued by medical regulators in several states, including California and Minnesota, for exercising their freedom of speech and medical judgment during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Scott Jenson, M.D., a Minnesota physician, who successfully fended off five attacks on his medical license by the state’s medical regulator, says such attempts to stifle doctors harm patients.
“Regarding the abusive attempts to censor Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, it is critical that we all understand that when a governmental licensing agency flexes its muscle to chill the protected free speech of a physician, it is not merely the doctor who is denied critical rights,” Jensen told Health Care News. “When people all over the world are denied the opportunity to learn from questions and comments a physician is able to provide regarding matters of scientific disagreement and emerging hypotheses, something is terribly wrong with those overreaching governmental agencies.”
Those dissenting from medical establishment views have been vindicated by subsequent disclosures, says Jensen.
“Dr. Mary Bowden has tenaciously stood in the arena of public debate despite being demonized and persecuted,” said Jensen. “And repeatedly, it has been demonstrated that her voice was one of reason and correct analyses.”
The TMB dismissed the first case against Bowden in May 2024. The second case is scheduled for late April or early May, according to Bowden.
Provider-Patient Relationship
If states want to improve health care for their residents, letting doctors be doctors and honoring informed consent is a direct way to do it, states a September 2024 report by The Heartland Institutes, the co-publisher of Health Care News.
“As doctors come under attack by state attorneys general, licensing boards, and the courts for simply trying to take care of patients, physicians are increasingly being overruled and sometimes threatened for treating their patient,” wrote the authors of “The American Health Care Plan: State Solutions.”
Joe Barnett ([email protected]) writes from Arlington, Texas.
Internet info:
S.T. Karnick, Matt Dean, Chris Talgo, “The American Health Care Plan: State Solutions,” The Heartland Institute, September 2024: https://heartland.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Sep-24-AHCP2.pdf
Joe Barnett is a senior editor at The Heartland Institute and a policy advisor on budget and tax issues.
