October 17, 2007

Bush’s Appointee for Head of Family Planning Hates Family Planning

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The deputy assistant secretary for population affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services has an important job. He or she oversees “HHS’s $283 million reproductive-health program, a $30 million program that encourages abstinence among teenagers, and HHS’s Office of Population Affairs, which funds birth control, pregnancy tests, counseling, and screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV.” So who better to run it than someone who once called contraceptives part of the “culture of death”?

That delicious little nugget belongs to Susan Orr, former “senior director for marriage and family care” at the Family Research Council (full bio here) and Bush appointee for the deputy assistant secretary spot (on an acting basis of course, which is a sham).

In another instance, Orr supported a Bush Administration proposal to stop requiring all health insurance plans for federal employees to cover a broad range of birth control. “We’re quite pleased,” said Orr, who would be perfect for this job in a bizarro universe, “because fertility is not a disease.”

And soon, having a kid will not be a choice. You’ll have one, dammit! One sexual act equals one kid. That’s the moral math in George W. Bush’s America.

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