Bush Appoints Contraception Foe to Family Planning Post

Yesterday President Bush appointed ob-gyn Eric Keroak to serve as the new HHS deputy assistant secretary for population affairs.  Keroak currently supervises 5 crisis pregnancy centers in Massachusetts under the umbrella organization A Women's Concern.  Crisis pregnancy centers often choose locations in the vicinity of Planned Parenthoods and other abortion providers in an attempt to confuse patients seeking an  to come into their centers where they are encouraged to give birth. 

A Women's Concern opposes contraception and supports abstinence until marriage.  Their website states that "crass commercialization and distribution of birth control is demeaning to women, degrading of human sexuality, and adverse to human health and happiness."  A Women's Concern is also the parent organization for Healthy Futures, the contractor that Governor Mitt Romney has selected to teach abstinence in public schools.   

As assistant secretary for population affairs, Keroak is to advise HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on issues including reproductive health and adolescent pregnancy and will administer $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."  This appointment, which does not need Senate approval, is another attempt on behalf of the Bush administration to chip away at women's rights at the risk of women's health.