To Oversee Family
Planning
Someone whose clinics
won't offer it
EDITORIAL,
washingtonpost.com from the Web Sunday, November 19, 2006
ERIC KEROACK is the medical director
of an antiabortion "pregnancy counseling" center that refuses to distribute
contraceptives or encourage their use -- even by married couples. The
organization, called "A Woman's Concern," says it is "persuaded that the crass
commercialization and distribution of birth control is demeaning to women,
degrading of human sexuality, and adverse to human health and happiness."
It believes -- despite abundant evidence to the contrary -- that making birth
control available, "especially among adolescents, actually increases (rather
than decreases) out-of-wedlock pregnancy and abortion."
These views would be merely bizarre were it not for this additional disturbing
fact: Dr. Keroack, an obstetrician-gynecologist, is about to start work at
the Department of Health and Human Services, overseeing federally funded family
planning programs. To put it simply, the Bush administration's choice to
direct the federal effort to make contraceptives available to low-income women
works for a group that doesn't support using contraception. What comes
next -- a science adviser who doesn't believe in evolution?
HHS spokeswoman Christina Pearson says that Dr. Keroack, in his private medical
practice, has prescribed contraception, although she could not say whether that
included unmarried women. But Dr. Keroack's involvement with A Woman's
Concern raises doubts about his commitment to the fundamental concept of the
federal family planning program, which, by offering timely and affordable access
to reliable contraception, has helped prevent millions of unintended
pregnancies. Unfortunately, the position to which Dr. Keroack is being
named, deputy assistant secretary for population affairs, isn't subject to
Senate confirmation. It should be subject, though, to common sense.
President Bush and Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt should
reconsider this ill-advised choice.
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