Another victory was enjoyed last week by the flat-earth crowd when President Bush appointed an anti-birth control activist to head Title X, the nation’s family planning program. The appointment of Susan Orr, a political activist and former Family Research Council staffer, fell neatly into the mold of Bush appointments whose main qualifications are their far-right pedigrees and loyalty to the president’s activist agenda. But Orr’s appointment as acting deputy assistant for population affairs distinguishes itself for sheer Orwellian reasons: the new head of family planning, it turns out, doesn’t believe in family planning.
Susan Orr was preceded in this position by the brief stint of Dr. Eric Keroack, an appointment that fueled a backlash from newspapers and health care providers nationwide. Dr. Keroack had a background supporting so-called "crisis pregnancy centers," and had no record of supporting birth control.
Susan Orr, whom the administration refers to as "doctor," even though her degree is in politics, has no medical background. Instead, she cut her political teeth as the Family Research Council’s marriage and family advocate. In this position, Orr cheered the Bush administration’s proposal to eliminate birth control insurance coverage for federal employees, educating the world by explaining "fertility is not a disease" and that contraception was not "a medical necessity."
For the record, the Family Research Council has served as the premier example of hard-right think tanks, opposing the teaching of evolution in schools, opposing ending discrimination in the workplace, and opposing birth control. The council’s members are entitled to their opinions, but entitled to run the nation’s family planning program? We think not.
It is true that fertility is not a disease, as Ms. Orr opines, but contraception is NOT a medical necessity? You’d think it is for the 98 percent of women who have used birth control sometime in their lifetime. That’s why we need someone in charge of the family planning program who will be a champion for the program, not a skeptic. Putting Susan Orr in charge of the nation’s family planning program is akin to hiring a police chief who doesn’t believe in fighting crime.
Each year, Planned Parenthood alone provides five million women, men and teens worldwide with information and needed health services. The majority of our clients are low-income women — many have no other access to reproductive health services without us; we often serve as their primary care provider. Yet, in her new post, Orr will have the ability to siphon funding from family planning providers who help millions of Americans, and direct it toward ineffective programs, such as abstinence-only programs. Frankly, there’s just too much at stake to let that happen. Right now, we have the highest teen pregnancy rate among the most developed countries, and sexually transmitted infections are on the rise. We know that the best defense against high rates of sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies is to teach prevention methods, like birth control. An appointment like Orr’s has the potential to cut off those services where they’re needed most — likely resulting in increased numbers of unintended pregnancies.
Congressional leaders have taken up the charge against Orr. In a conference call with Planned Parenthood, Senator Hillary Clinton last week stated, "Women and their families deserve a qualified public health expert who will serve women's health instead of serving an ideological and political agenda." We couldn’t agree more.
Bush needs to replace Orr with an expert on women’s health, not a political activist. The director of Title X should be the federal government’s advocate for women’s health, not its antagonist. She should champion family planning, not fight it. And she should work for women, not against them.