Thursday, November 30, 2006
Editorial: Bush's choice for family planning
Dr. Eric Keroack is an 'anti-birth control, anti-sex education' advocate.
From the RoundTable blog
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President Bush has appointed to oversee the nation's family planning program a physician who works at an organization that preaches sexual abstinence until marriage and regards the distribution of contraceptives as "demeaning to women."
A politically motivated, postelection attempt by Bush to flex his weakened muscles? Or simply a refusal to compromise his principles?
Never mind that analysts maintain that the focus on abstinence rather than contraception is leading to less use of contraceptives and more unintended pregnancies. Four in 10 babies born last year in the United States were out-of-wedlock.
Never mind that a recent Government Accountability Office report discovered that efforts to measure the effectiveness of abstinence programs aren't scientific enough and that federal and state agencies have found inaccuracies in abstinence education materials.
Dr. Eric Keroack, an obstetrician who is medical director at a Christian pregnancy-counseling organization based in Dorchester, Mass., has been tapped to serve as deputy assistant secretary for population affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Ah, it's just Bush, still smarting from the Democrats winning control of Congress.
Let's hope not. Casually brushing this off as a purely political move would ignore what is at stake.
According to The Washington Post, Keroack will advise on such matters as reproductive health and adolescent pregnancy and will oversee $283 million in annual family planning grants that HHS says are "designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them, with priority given to low-income persons."
Some might argue that Keroack is who's needed now.
HHS, in lauding his appointment, cited his talks to youth audiences on sexual risk behaviors and his nationally recognized work on preventing teen pregnancy.
But at stake are the health interests of women and families. And Keroack's appointment seems woefully out of step.
