Foe of birth control to head Family Planning

[marmar]

From InterPress, via CommonDreams

Published on Friday, December 1, 2006 by the Inter Press Service
Foe of Birth Control to Head Family Planning
by Haider Rizvi

NEW YORK - Women's groups, health advocacy organisations and 21 members of the U.S. Congress are strongly lobbying against the recent appointment of an anti-birth control activist as head of the nation's family planning programme.

Last week, the George W. Bush administration named Dr. Eric Keroack to oversee the country's family planning programmes at the Department of Health and Human Services, despite the fact that he was well known for his extremist views on abortion and birth control, including for married women.

The fact that Keroack was appointed soon after the Bush administration lost control of both houses of Congress to the opposition Democratic Party early this month has raised further suspicions that Bush wants to use his office to advance a far-right agenda.

"His appointment is an insult to American women. It's outrageous," June Zeitlin, executive director of the New York-based Women's Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO), told IPS.

"Once again we see what lengths this president will go to in order to pacify his anti-birth control right-wing base," added Nancy Keenan, president of Naral Pro-Choice America, an advocacy group.

Last week, Naral, which has more than one million members, and 24 other leading providers and advocates of reproductive health care, including the Planned Parenthood Federation, sent a letter to Michael O' Leavitt, the secretary of health, urging him to reconsider Keroack's appointment as deputy assistant secretary for population affairs (DASPA).

The DASPA is responsible for providing family planning and preventive health care services to more than five million poor women. Since its creation some 35 years ago, the federal family planning programme has helped women avoid an estimated 20 million pregnancies.

The rest of the article is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1201-07.htm

[kysrsoze]

1. Well,I guess that's great if you want to plan for families to happen

[LisaM]

2. Who is the proper party to contact

to object to this? Our Senators (mine are both Democratic women). The White House? The agency itself?

[marmar]

3. Here's a link to petition to stop the nomination:

http://prochoiceaction.org/campaign/hhs_famplannom_1106

[LisaM]

6. I signed it, but do online petitions work?

I was thinking more in the lines of calling someone to complain.

[Scairp]

7. Like the White House you mean?

Yeah, sure, so ahead, Dumbya will listen.

[saigon68]

4. It's like fucking for virginity

[AndyTiedye]

5. No Mention of Congress, Does This Appointment Need Any Confirmation at All?

[jgraz]

11. Nope, if Bush wants him, he gets him

But the Dems have threatened to subpoena the guy every single day he shows up for work.

[The Stranger]

8. Too many people on the planet, yet religious nuts want to outlaw birth control.

How did everything get so fucked up?

[Gelliebeans]

9. K&R

[Megahurtz]

10. Ew!

A man who is against Birth Control appointed to Family Planning?
Sounds like the ass has no plans to me.
Anti-Birth Control??? What a freak!:freak:
Say HELL NO to Dr. Eric Keroack!:argh:

[AnneD]

12. At least...

he's not a Veterinarian.:shrug:
Say is it my imagination or is the gene pool at the WH getting shallower.

[Quantess]

18. The job qualifications are getting skimpier, that's for sure.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

13. There they go trying to raise the rate of abortions again

I read this today on DU:

Birth control credited with drop in teen pregnancy

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The dramatic declines in teenage pregnancy rates noted in the United States between 1995 and 2002 were largely due to improved contraceptive use, not to abstinence, a new study shows.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2637317#2637664

Now they're attempting to reverse the progress and if they do you know what comes next. More abortions, child neglect/abuse and a greater need for more social programs for these young parents and their unplanned children. Yes, all the things they are supposed to be against.

Hypocrisy thy name is republican.

[Ilsa]

14. Direct link to IPS article:

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35668

[bling bling]

15. Do the women in GW Bush's life have any actual association with this man?

How can a man who paid for an abortion AND a man of two party-girl daughters appoint someone who is anti-birth control?? Do his wife and kids just smoke, pop anti-depressents and drink all the time so that they don't have to think about how their father/husband has negatively impacted the choices and options of women around the globe?

I know if it were me I would not just let it go if it was MY father or MY husband playing a game with women's lives for the sake of politics.

[Jack Rabbit]

16. Is Bush going to appoint Willie Sutton to the Fed?

If we can hav an oppenent of birth control to head family planning, I guess we can have a bank robber at the Fed.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

17. If only miracles could occur...

and Dr. Eric Keroack would wake up pregnant tomorrow.

[Miss Chybil]

19. Who's going to raise all the babies?

These people hate social programs, but they're hell bent on increasing the size of our society. Of course, the rich folks will get their pills, the poor ones will just have to keep making babies. Nothing like home-made cheap labor, I guess.