Writer of U.S. ‘Squeal Rule’ Resigns After Travel Probe

The top U.S. official on population matters, who authored the controversial “squeal rule” to inform parents of contraceptive devices sought by their children, has resigned after an official investigation into her travel expense accounts, Department of Health and Human Services officials said today. One of the accounts reportedly billed taxpayers for a stay in Denver so she could see her Broncos’ linebacker son play.

Marjory Mecklenburg quit as director of the office of population affairs at the department after columnist Jack Anderson reported that the department’s inspector general was examining out-of-town trips she took at government expense in 1983 and 1984.

The inspector general’s office confirmed the investigation but also said it uncovered no evidence of wrongdoing and that the matter is considered closed.

Anderson’s column, which was published today, said Mecklenburg and a top aide took 14 trips over two years, costing taxpayers $12,939.

The column questioned in particular a three-day trip to Denver last November, when Mecklenburg attended the opening session of a two-day technical assistance workshop sponsored by the department.

Anderson said she then stayed in Denver to watch her son, Carl Mecklenburg, play in a game against the Minnesota Vikings.

Anderson quoted Mecklenburg as ridiculing the notion that his mother had scheduled the conference so she could make the trip at government expense, arguing that “the Vikings are the worst team in football.”

As head of the population office, Mecklenburg was the author of the law that required family planning clinics receiving federal money to notify parents of contraceptives or birth control information given to minor children. The law was knocked down in the courts.