Foxes running the henhouse

The Bush Administration seems to have perfected the art of choosing the wrong person for the job. Alberto Gonzales as AG, Mike Brown at FEMA, former mining executive Richard Stickler at the Mine Safety and Health Administration, not to mention Rumsfeld, Chief Justice Roberts, and Dick “Headshot” Cheney. One only need to look at New Orleans, Iraq, the state of our civil liberties or Harry Whittington’s face to judge to results of these decisions.

In keeping with the general theme of ideology before competence, Bush has chosen someone completely opposed to the idea of contraception to run the government office charged with overseeing national family planning and reproductive health programs.

You may remember Bush's previous pick: Eric Keroack, who was medical director of a pregnancy-counseling (read: antiabortion) clinic that considered birth control "demeaning to women" and believed that making contraception available, "especially among adolescents, actually increases . . . out-of-wedlock pregnancy and abortion."

Keroack resigned after it was revealed that state Medicaid officials had taken action against his private medical practice in Massachusetts. Bush replaced him with Susan Orr, former senior director for marriage and family care at the conservative Family Research Council and an adjunct professor at Pat Robertson's Regent University. Orr seems to be Keroack Lite.

In 2001, when the Bush administration proposed lifting the requirement that health insurers of federal employees provide coverage for contraceptives, Orr cheered. "We're quite pleased, because fertility is not a disease," she said. "It's not a medical necessity that you have it." Tell that to girls like Ana.

The year before, Orr fought a D.C. Council bill requiring all employers to cover contraception -- with no exception for those, such as the Catholic Church, that have religious objections. I agree that a "conscience clause" should have been included, but Orr's opposition was disturbingly vitriolic. "The mask of choice is falling off," she said. "It's not about choice. It's not about health care. It's about making everyone collaborators with the culture of death."

“…collaborators with the culture of death”? Words fail me.