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In Other XX News
The beleaguered federal office that oversees family planning
services just got another boss hostile
to birth control.
Among the depressing details: Susan
Orr, the new appointee, was formerly a Senior Director at the Family Research
Council, a group that disparages condom use and claims that abstinence is the
only healthy choice to make about sex prior to marriage. In 2001, when the Bush
administration wanted to stop requiring health plans for federal employees to
pay for a broad range of contraceptives, Orr told the Washington Post: “We’re
quite pleased because fertility is not a disease. It’s not a medical necessity
that you have it.”
Orr is not as floridly insane as Eric Keroack, whom the Bush
administration appointed in 2006 to head the same office (and who left in March
to address allegations against his private practice.). Keroack championed the
bizarre idea that premarital sex wreaks havoc on brain chemistry, creating a
physiological barrier to love and commitment later on. Orr won’t inspire
mocking editorials long after her appointment. She’s likely to slip from public view. Which to me makes her a whole lot scarier.
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