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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From the desk of Mother Jones CEO, Monika Bauerlein...

Newsrooms can be funded in many ways. One of the most controversial (and volatile) ways is by a for-profit corporation or a billionaire owner. We see it across the headlines on a weekly basis: the claw backs in public media, the gutting of The Washington Post, the bending over backwards to appeal to Trump and his allies.

But not here.

When Mother Jones first started publishing 50 years ago, our founders made a critical decision: to be a reader-supported nonprofit. They knew that no corporate owner would be interested in a muckraking newsroom; they also knew that no muckraking newsroom would be interested in following the agenda of a corporate owner.

And so, we’ve been reader-funded for half a century. We rely on contributions from our readers—readers like you—whether it’s $50, or $15 a month, or whatever fits your budget. People give what they can, and every donation makes a difference for our newsroom, which has grown tremendously—in size and reach and renown—since its inception in 1976.

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