Reproductive Health Experts Slam Bush Appointment
President Bush's appointment this week of a new chief of family-planning programs has raised the ire of reproductive health advocates. At a World Health Organization roundtable this morning, experts said the choice could potentially decrease access to contraception for women and teenage girls who can't afford it or don't have health insurance coverage. Eric Keroack, medical director for A Woman's Concern, will step into the position of deputy assistant secretary for population affairs and will oversee Title X, the government program that provides contraceptive services to those in need. Keroack has been a strong proponent of abstinence-only programs in schools, and A Woman's Concern, a Massachusetts-based pregnancy crisis center, emphasizes on its website that "condoms do not provide 100 percent protection" against STDs and advocates against sex before marriage.
David Grimes, clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina, said that abstinence-only policies aren't based on sound science. "Research shows that schools with these programs have a 58 percent higher risk of teen pregnancies," he says. Others worry that Keroack's appointment will only exacerbate the problems poor women encounter getting access to contraception and abortions. "This is a signal that, despite a pledge of bipartisanship, this administration is going to steer hard right," says Shira Saperstein, deputy director for Women's Rights and Reproductive Health at the Moriah Fund, a private foundation based in Washington, D.C. "This could change the way family planning services are offered to women, and we need to keep a close watch on this." She said that about half of the women who qualify for contraceptive services are still not getting them under Title X. As a result, the United States continues to have one of the highest rates of teen pregnancies and unintended pregnancies among industrialized countries.
advertisement
