WOMEN'S RIGHTS -- BUSH APPOINTS ANTI-CHOICE FAMILY-PLANNING CHIEF

[Don_1967]

Bush yesterday appointed a "new chief of family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services who worked at a Christian pregnancy-counseling organization that regards the distribution of contraceptives as 'demeaning to women.'" Dr. Eric Keroack, medical director for the nonprofit group A Woman's Concern, will oversee $283 million in annual family-planning grants under Title X that are "designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them with priority given to low-income persons." The appointment angered family-planning advocates because A Woman's Choice "supports sexual abstinence until marriage, opposes contraception and does not distribute information promoting birth control." Keroack criticized the American Medical Association for its recommendations "against using any 'unproven' sex education approach in 2004 -- a reference to abstinence programs," and once compared premarital sex to drug use. At a 2003 International Abstinence Leadership Conference in Las Vegas, Keroack wrote in a PowerPoint that "premarital sex is really modern germ warfare" and used research on prairie voles to argue that "teenage sexual activity blunts the brain's ability to develop emotional relationships." Scientists involved with research into bonding called Keroack's theories "an extreme reading of the data." Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards has called Keroack's appointment "striking proof that the Bush administration remains dramatically out of step with the nation�s priorities."

[Nikki Stone1]

1. Opposes contraception, even for married women?

We. Told. You. So.

[HockeyMom]

11. Wonder how they think majority of married couples

only have 2.1 kids. They PRAY they don't have more kids?

I wonder if they will have gag order on BC for MEN also? Vasectomy? What's a vasectomy?

[erinmblair]

This is the same group who...

wants to propose that singles should abstain from having sex until they're 30! They obviously don't have any idea how the real world works and they want to have women from having NO choices at all. I think this is yet another occasion where men are making rules for women. Have you noticed how many of these anti-choice people are men?

[Warren DeMontague]

43. Yeah. Who is surprised?

That's part of the agenda. Shit, that IS the agenda.

If you don't realize they really consider women who use the pill to be "criminals", you haven't been paying attention.

[EFerrari]

2. The frat boy has now put American women at serious risk

for all kinds of health problems.

He's a sociopath.

[Warpy]

24. It's typical for closet cases

which I strongly suspect he is. They despise that part of themselves which is attracted to men, label it "feminine," and develop a pathological hatred of anything female.

This "doctor" is a raving lunatic. His tenure will be vicious, acrimonious, and mercifully short.

I just wonder how many women he'll kill during the next two years.

[EFerrari]

25. Really. Not even counting the young women who won't develop

good health habits because they will no longer have that opportunity.

[G_Leo_Criley]

3. k & r

:kick:

glc

[kenny blankenship]

4. Democrats should really go after this

appointing an anti-contraception activist to head of family planning within HHS is an attack on women. Maybe it's "just symbolic" but it's symbolic of a desire to reduce women to baby-factories for men.

[Felinity]

27. I agree

They need to invite him over to the House and give him a good old fashioned, under-oath grilling. My money says he can't take it. Those self-righteous A**hole types are pretty wimpy under pressure. And they don't process facts well.

[quiet.american]

5. Everything with Bush is a sick joke. n/t

[LilyLibber]

6. This is appalling!!!

Thanks for the additional info on this twisted SOB.

See my previous thread about this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2974257

There's a link to the MSNBC article there...be prepared to be pissed off. :grr:

[porphyrian]

7. How can any woman ever support bush when he does shit like this?

Is it a self-hating thing, like log cabin republicans?

[riderinthestorm]

8. Well, at least he didn't appoint another veterinarian to head this up.

:eyes:

Got the prairie voles research in there though: women, animals, what the fuck.

This organization distributes contraception and information to low income households - one of the most at-risk groups for unwanted pregnancy, and Keroack is now going to put into place his (failed) programs on abstinence. Another crime perpetuated on the poor - bring in the Katrina analogies.

[kestrel91316]

17. Hell, any of us veterinarians would make a better head

than this f---ing FUNDIE.

Remember, vets are the smart ones. Medical schools are full of people who COULDN'T get into vet school.

[riderinthestorm]

21. Oh I agree with you, my vets are some of the smartest people I know

the point though is that Bu$h has appointed veterinarians who lacked appropriate credentials and experience to head up organizations dedicated to women's health issues.

He seems to purposefully choose candidates for their unsuitability for the job and who will cause maximum flames. So many of his choices feel like such a slap it's hard not to interpret his actions as deliberate. Keroack is one of them.

[kestrel91316]

29. Lol, the vet Bush appointed to that women's health position

was a DAMNED CROOK. I hope the AVMA expels him and he loses whatever vet licenses he holds. What a disgrace.

[mentalsolstice]

31. Most vets I know promote family planning for pets

wow, that would be something if my dog was entitled to choices that I don't have.

[EFerrari]

35. I trust my vet 'way more than I trust my own doc.

And that's the truth. :)

[Marnieworld]

9. I have finally figured out what the only thing is the * administration is good at

Appointing people to positions that function in direct opposition to their experience and views. He appoints anti-labor people to head Labor functions. He appoints polluters to protect the environment and now this? A person in charge of distributing contraceptives who opposes this very thing?

It shows how much work we have ahead of us with a major need for a genuine media. Any media that let's all of this go by unexamined is complicit and a propoganda arm. This is madness.

[DemBones DemBones]

14. Making sure this is widely reported in the news media should

generate a groundswell of public opposition. If we all forwarded the article to CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, it would get their attention. Even regular Fox news fanatics won't like this, even if they don't use contraceptives themselves, because it would mean more babies being born to poor women and thus more tax money going to prenatal care, delivery costs, WIC, etc.

[DemBones DemBones]

10. How about a link? I want to know if this position will

require confirmation by one or both houses of Congress.

[LilyLibber]

12. No, unfortunately.

It's an appointment and doesn't require Senate confirmation. See the link in post #6. :hi:

[DemBones DemBones]

16. Thanks. I was writing my post when you posted that info

but had to answer about six questions here before finishing my post! (In other words, I had read all the posts that had been made in the thread before I started writing my post.)

[lukasahero]

13. It does not

See MSM article link from another post above: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15757100

"The appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation, was the latest provocative personnel move by the White House since Democrats won control of Congress in this month's midterm elections. "

[kenny blankenship]

18. It does not, but it could make a fine committee hearing anyway!

[Triana]

15. Mysogenist Control Freaks! (n/t)

[NC_Nurse]

19. Dr. Quack sounds like another

great pic from these lunatics. That's what happens when you get a bunch of anti-science wack jobs
at the top of the government. Garbage.

[mongo]

20. Where do they find these guys?

Do they have a cave where they store all future appointments?

WTF?
that regards the distribution of contraceptives as 'demeaning to women.'"

"premarital sex is really modern germ warfare" and used research on prairie voles to argue that "teenage sexual activity blunts the brain's ability to develop emotional relationships.

What rock did this cockroach of a public servant crawl out under from?

[ComerPerro]

22. This is the norm. He always goes for irony when making appointments

I think Michael Moore did a writeup about his initial picks in Stupid White Men, but I can't remember exactly.

Appoint someone dedicated to destroying the environment to a position charged with protecting it, appoint someone who hates the UN as our UN representation, and appoint someone actively anti-choice to family planning.

[mom cat]

23. Until Bush/Cheney are impeached these outrages will continue. They

still have way too much power!

[LilyLibber]

26. This is giving the Civil Rights Activist in me

a swift kick in the ass! :kick: It's a slap in the face from the Bushitler administration. :grr:

[AnnieBW]

28. Meet the New Bush

Same as the Old Bush...

Does this nitwit have to have Congressional approval? I hope so!

Also... does anybody see the irony in the phrase International Abstinence Leadership Conference in Las Vegas? I wonder how many of the attendees were practicing what they were preaching? :evilgrin:

[DemBones DemBones]

30. Nope, no Congressional approval is needed for this appointment.

Putting the word out on this is the only answer I see.

[mentalsolstice]

32. I'ts his punishment to women who voted Dem during the mid-terms n/t

[mentalsolstice]

33. Thank God for menopause

or is he going to find a way to take that away as well.

[DemBones DemBones]

34. Probably. He and the Lame Duck GOP are pushing quite a few

things through, as if the Dems didn't have enough of a mess to straighten out.

[Quantess]

36. Are there no women candidates for this job?

Is that too much to ask, for a woman to be appointed to head family-planning programs?
:eyes:

[Warren DeMontague]

46. How about someone who isn't a fucking far right fundy anti-sex zealot?

If you just ask for "a woman", you're liable to get Phylis Shlafly.

[mongo]

47. Good point!

[tinfoil tiaras]

37. freak. condoms prevent abortions...

(most of the time)
dumbass. :grr:

[Greylyn58]

38. This is horrifying

This "MAN"(who was given the job by another man) is in charge of how women should handle their own bodies!! HE decides how, when or if we have sex and/or children???

There are so many reasons this wrong. I just hope his tenure is mercifully short!!

[BleedingHeartRN]

39. The wingnut throws a bone to rabid fundie base

I read about this in my local paper this morning - disgusting. Another full assault on women's rights. Thank you fundamentalist nutbags!!! I wonder if this isn't some lame attempt at an "i'm sorry" for the fundie base that stayed at home on election day in protest.

I find this particularly offensive "(the group)opposes contraception, saying that its use increases out-of-wedlock pregnancy and abortion rates." Where did they get those "facts?" A sex education book from 1913?

[stepnw1f]

40. Control Freak.... Soon He'll Be Gone (nt)

[bullwinkle428]

41. Exactly like when he appointed the gynecologist that literally couldn't find his wife's

vagina! Bill Maher JUST told this story as part of his stand-up on Comic Relief for Katrina! It's staggering to me how they actually find these people in the first place! :grr:

[BleedingHeartRN]

45. OMG!

I was just laughing at the same thing. Eerily though, that Dr. Hager Bill Maher was joking about was a partner in my OB/Gyn's office when I had my first son. He was actually on-call the weekend after I had my son (c-section), and came into see me on morning rounds, dressed in his Sunday morning finery. I had never met him before and he completely creeped me out. I thought he had the worst bedside manner I'd ever seen and was a total a-hole. I later met another woman who told me she had a really bad experience with him in his office, examining her without a nurse present in the room.

After Dumbya appointed him to that FDA committee, I told this story to as many people as I could. The more pious, the bigger the freak.....

[walldude]

42. In the spirit of Bi-Partisanship!

yeah.. keep telling me how we have to play nice... "for political reasons". :eyes:

[Warren DeMontague]

44. There's your bipartisanship spirit, right there.

Um, Congress, it's time to play hardball with these fucking knuckle-dragging nominees.