Wait…What?

President Bush has once again appointed a critic of birth control to head the family planning programs of the Department of Health & Human Services. Birth-Control Foe To Run Office on Family Planning – washingtonpost.com.

“Susan Orr, most recently an associate commissioner in the Administration for Children and Families, was appointed Monday to be acting deputy assistant secretary for population affairs. She will oversee $283 million in annual grants to provide low-income families and others with contraceptive services, counseling and preventive screenings.”

Orr is against making federal agencies include birth control in the prescriptions they cover even though birth control devices such as the pill are widely used to deal with many non-sexual/pregnancy situations such as PCOS, painful periods, Endometriosis and more. I guess if you work for a federal agency, you better not get one those conditions.

The last person in the job, Eric Keroack, was previously a doctor for a Christian pregnancy counseling organization and he openly opposed the use of birth control period, so I guess she is somewhat of an improvement. I’m in favor of teaching abstinence, but I’m also in favor of reality. Birth control is a necessary element of family planning and it is a health issue equal to any other that federal agencies would be required to cover.