Elizabeth Song | A new threat to women's rights

Under the banner of compassionate conservatism, President Bush is continuing his crusade to protect America's youth from the unholy terror of sex before holy matrimony.

In a very public eff-you to Planned Parenthood, Bush has appointed an anti-contraception nut to oversee the nation's family-planning and teen-pregnancy programs. Eric Keroack, the medical director of a string of anti-abortion centers called A Woman's Concern, is now in charge of a $283 million budget to provide family-planning services to the nation.

As reported by The Daily Pennsylvanian, this news comes at a time when out-of-wedlock births are on the rise. According to a report by the Guttmacher Institute, the need for low-cost contraception has also increased.

Keroack is as fit to remedy these problems as the pope. Even some pro-lifers grudgingly agree. "I don't see why the appointment would be appropriate," said College senior Frank-Paul Sampino, who doesn't support abortion.

Keroack's new job will make him responsible for ensuring contraceptive access and subsidizing abortions for low-income women. "I liken it to appointing Charlton Heston head of the Bureau of Tobacco and Firearms," Penn for Choice President Sonia Pascal said.

An anti-contraception fanatic in charge of America's sex-education programs. That's about as smart as having an ardent hater of the United Nations representing our interests on the UN. Or having a man who helped his company evade federal income taxes serve as Treasury secretary.

Too bad those actually happened.

Now, Bush has turned his attention to pre-marital sex. This is not the first time the president has stacked his administration with reproductive-rights conservatives. In 2002, Bush appointed David Hager as head the Food and Drug Administration's advisory committee on reproductive health. Hager, if possible, is even more of an anti-contraception nut than Keroack. He staunchly disapproves of contraceptives, refusing to give them out to single women - the demographic most in need of contraception.

Neither Keroack's nor Hager's positions were subject to the approval of the Senate, which means the president was able to pick the most controversial figures he saw fit. In addition, Bush has drained funding for the Title X program, which operates about 4,500 family-planning clinics nationwide and provides reproductive-health services to 5 million people. Keroack's appointment is one event in a long string of attempts by the President to legislate his beliefs on women's bodies.

Keroack is slotted as the president's new partner in crime. His organization states that "the crass commercialization and distribution of birth control is demeaning to women, degrading of human sexuality and adverse to human health and happiness."

Actually, Mr. Keroack, you are.

A Woman's Concern has come under attack for distributing blatantly false information about abortion and contraception. In a pamphlet, it claims that the risk of breast cancer increases by 50 percent after a woman's first abortion. For girls under the age of 18, this risk increases to eight times the normal amount.

"That doesn't make any physiologic sense," nurse practitioner and Penn Women's Health Coordinator Deborah Mathis said. The National Cancer Institute has even dispelled any connection between induced abortion and breast-cancer risk.

"To give false information to frighten a woman already at one of the most difficult times in her life is unfair and cruel," Steven Sondheimer, a Penn professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Even worse, for a man who will lead America's efforts to curb teen pregnancies, Keroack is also a longtime foe of contraception. In another piece of medical pseudoscience, Keroack claims that premarital sex disturbs the brain chemistry required for long-term commitments. Abstinence, according to Keroack, is the only way to a happy marriage.

Keroack's wacky organization also tries to prevent patients from seeking abortions by providing free ultrasounds. He claims that this method has been highly effective in preventing the number of abortions. It's nothing short of a shameless scare tactic.

If Keroack thinks the solution to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancies is simply abstaining from sex, he's got another thing coming. A woman's concern, Mr. Keroack, is really none of your business.

Elizabeth Song is a College sophomore from Clemmons, N.C. Her e-mail address is song@dailypennsylvanian.com . Striking a Chord appears on Thursdays.

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