Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report Summarizes Editorials On Keroack Appointment As HHS Deputy Secretary

Two editorials respond to President Bush's appointment of ob-gyn Eric Keroack -- medical director for A Woman's Concern, a pregnancy-counseling organization -- as the new HHS deputy assistant secretary for population affairs. Many family planning advocates were angered by the appointment of Keroack, noting that A Women's Concern opposes contraception and supports sexual abstinence until marriage. Keroack will administer $283 million in annual HHS family planning grants and advise HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on issues including reproductive health and adolescent pregnancy. HHS Assistant Secretary for Health John Agwunobi called Keroack a "highly qualified and a well-respected physician" (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 11/17).

• Boston Globe: Keroack's appointment "exemplifies the concerns of women's health advocates who have long warned that the antiabortion movement will not stop at abortion," a Globe editorial says. "[T]o name an opponent of family planning to oversee the nation's family planning program is perverse even by the standards of a government that doesn't much believe in government," the editorial says, concluding, "To argue that abstinence is the only acceptable route to family planning divides the country, ignores reality and condemns millions of women to poorer lives" (Boston Globe, 11/18).
  
  
• Washington Post: Keroack's involvement with A Woman's Concern "raises doubts about his commitment to the fundamental concept of the federal family planning program," which offers "timely and affordable access to reliable contraception," a Post editorial says. The editorial concludes that although Keroack's appointment is not subject to Senate confirmation, it "should be subject ... to common sense," adding that Bush and Leavitt "should reconsider this ill-advised choice" (Washington Post, 11/19).
  

NPR's "Weekend Edition Saturday" reported on criticism of Keroack's views on family planning issues. The segment includes comments from Mark Conrad, president of A Woman's Concern; Marilyn Keefe, interim president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association; and Dianne Luby, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts (Smith, "Weekend Edition Saturday," NPR, 11/18). Audio of the segment is available online.


"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.