The War on Birth Control, Part 1

In this day and age, it seems like hyperbole to say there is a war being waged against birth control, but there have been so many recent attacks that it is pretty easy to make the case. This is the first of a series of posts I’ll be making about blatant attacks on contraception.

Earlier this week, the Bush administration announced the appointment of Susan Orr as the agency’s acting deputy assistant secretary for population affairs. Unfortunately, that “acting” designation means she is not subject to Senate confirmation. The position makes her responsible for the oversight of Title X, the federal family planning program that serves more than 5 million low-income Americans annually. Title X helps low-income women get birth control. In a bit of irony that only the Bush administration could generate, Orr represents the second appointment this year of an anti-birth control crusader to a position that is responsible for providing low-income women with birth control.

In Orr’s former position as senior director for marriage and family care at the Family Research Council, a political organization that opposes family planning, she cheered the Bush administration’s proposed elimination of the contraceptive coverage requirement from federal employees’ health insurance. Said Orr of the proposal, “We’re quite pleased because fertility is not a disease. It’s not a medical necessity that you have [contraception].”

She said that requiring insurance companies to cover contraception was “making everyone collaborators with the culture of death.” That is a strong statement considering 98% of us are using birth control at some point in our lives.

Earlier this year, Bush appointed Eric Keroack, another anti-birth control extremist, for the same post. Keroack served as head of an organization called “A Woman’s Concern,” which boasted an anti-contraception policy on its website that declared birth control is “demeaning to women.” Keroack stepped down earlier this year amid Medicaid fraud allegations.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D–CA) said it best: “This appointment is absurd.”

You can take action against this outrageous appointment at
http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/oppose_orr