HEALTH CARE
The Anti-Family Planning Czar
On Monday, President Bush appointed
Susan Orr Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population
Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a
position that
gives her oversight of federal family planning programs. Orr, who is
currently directing HHS child welfare programs, was touted by the
administration as "highly
qualified." Before joining HHS, Orr served as senior director for
marriage and family care at the conservative Family Research
Council, which opposes family planning, and was an adjunct professor at
Pat Robertson's Regent University. In her new role, Orr, who considers
contraceptives part of the "culture of death,"
will be responsible for "HHS's $283 million reproductive-health
program, a $30 million
program that encourages abstinence among teenagers, and HHS's
Office of
Population Affairs, which funds birth control, pregnancy tests,
counseling, and screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV."
Given Orr's record
of opposition to comprehensive family planning services, women's
rights and reproductive health advocates are speaking out strongly
against her appointment. "We are appalled," said Mary Jane Gallagher,
president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health
Association. "While her resume suggests a commitment to child welfare
and children, her
professional credentials fail to demonstrate a commitment to
comprehensive family planning services for all men and women in need."
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) called her appointment "absurd." Referring
to her as "a virulently anti-family planning
radical," Planned
Parenthood has circulated a petition opposing Orr. Unfortunately, though, appointing Orr as an "acting"
secretary allows the administration to sidestep the need for Senate
confirmation.
A RECORD AGAINST FAMILY PLANNING: In 2001,
Orr embraced a Bush administration proposal to "stop requiring all
health insurance plans for federal employees" to cover
a broad range of birth control. "We're quite pleased, because
fertility is not a disease," said Orr. At the 2001 Conservative
Political Action Conference, Orr
cheered Bush's endorsement of former President Ronald Reagan's "Mexico
City Policy,"
which required NGOs receiving federal funds to "neither perform nor
actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other
nations." In a 2000 Weekly Standard article, Orr railed against
requiring health
insurance plans to cover contraceptives. "It's not about
choice," said
Orr. "It's not about health care. It's about
making everyone collaborators with the culture of death." In 2000,
she authored a paper titled, "Real Women Stay Married." In it, she
wrote
that women should "think about focusing our eyes, not upon ourselves,
but upon the families
we form through marriage." In 1999, Orr referred to child
protection as "the
most intrusive arm of social services." Her former employer, the
Family Research Council, which championed her appointment yesterday, equates
contraception with abortion.
BUSH'S PATTERN OF RADICAL APPOINTMENTS: Orr is the latest in a long line of Bush administration
appointments promoting "a
conservative political agenda" that often "runs counter to
well-established science." In 2002, Bush appointed W. David
Hager, an obstetrician-gynecologist considered "a leading
conservative Christian voice on women's
health and sexuality," to the Advisory Committee for Reproductive
Health Drugs in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In his
position, Hager "played a key role" in convincing the FDA to overrule
the advisory committee's recommendations and to initially reject
allowing emergency contraception, known as Plan B, from being made
available
over the counter. The American College of
Obstetricians
and Gynecologists called that decision a "dark stain on the reputation
of an
evidence-based agency like the FDA." In Nov. 2006, Bush appointed
Eric Keroack to the same position Orr plans to fill. Before the
appointment, Keroack was the medical director at A Woman's Concern, a
Christian pregnancy counseling group that "supports sexual abstinence
until marriage, opposes
contraception and
does not distribute information promoting birth control at its six
centers in eastern Massachusetts." In March 2007, Keroack resigned from the position to defend himself from accusations
of medical fraud.
CONSERVATIVE
ASSAULT ON FAMILY PLANNING: These appointments are merely
part of a larger conservative assault on family planning. In January,
Sen. David Vitter
(R-LA) introduced the Title X Family Planning Act, a bill to amend the
Public Health Service Act, prohibiting
family planning grants from being
awarded to an entity that performs
abortions, despite the fact that federal law already prohibits clinics from spending Title X money on abortion services. A similar
restriction was attached to the House Labor, Health and Human Services,
and Education spending bill, but the
measure was soundly defeated. The House bill did include,
however, an additional $28 million federal funding for abstinence-only
education, which dictates discussing
contraceptives only in terms of failure rates while often
exaggerating them. The Bush administration recently launched a
national ad campaign promoting abstinence-only education, despite a
recent federal report concluded that such programs have had "no
impacts on rates of sexual abstinence." In March, a new federal law
"eliminated
price breaks for many
university student health centers, driving the cost of some
birth-control products from less than $10 a month to $50 or more."
JUSTICE -- MUKASEY SIGNALS SUPPORT FOR
MANY OF BUSH'S POLICIES: In
his confirmation hearing yesterday, Attorney General nominee Michael
Mukasey signaled that he would be a departure from his
predecessor, Alberto Gonzales. Mukasey said "he will reject
White House political meddling and overstepping its authority in
terrorism cases." "I would be uncomfortable
with any evidence used in trial that is coerced," he said. Mukasey
expressed his willingness to work with Congress, stating, "I would
certainly suggest going to
Congress whenever we can." At the same time, he was "reluctant to
say whether he thought the administration's terrorist surveillance
program crossed the legal boundaries of a 1978 law setting limits on
government spying in the U.S," emphasizing that the President could
take steps without
consulting Congress. Mukasey was also
reluctant to say that Guantanamo Bay prison should be closed and
said he would
not expand habeas corpus rights for detainees. "I'm encouraged by
the answers," said Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT),
suggesting that it is likely
Mukasey will be confirmed.
INTELLIGENCE -- SENATE GRANTS IMMUNITY
TO TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANIES ON WIRETAPPING: Yesterday,
the Senate reached an agreement with the Bush administration on a
government surveillance bill that includes
immunity for telecommunications companies who may have broken the
law in the past by making client data available to the National
Security Agency. President Bush has declared
immunity to be a precondition to his signing the bill. But
providing
immunity "would wipe out a series of pending lawsuits
alleging violations
of privacy rights by telecommunications companies that provided telephone records,
summaries of e-mail traffic and other information to the government
after Sept. 11, 2001, without receiving court warrants." Cindy Cohn of
the Electronic Frontier Foundation,
the lead counsel in one such lawsuit against AT&T, said that these
lawsuits are not the work of "typical
trial lawyers trying to find a way to get into the pockets of American companies," as
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) claimed. "It's certainly
the goal of the administration and the phone companies to ensure that
there's never a decision about [whether] what's been going on is legal
or not. The
telecom cases are the last, best hope," Cohn said. The House
Democratic leadership yesterday had to pull its version of the bill,
which does not contain telecom immunity, after Deputy Whip Eric Cantor
(R-VA) introduced
an amendment that would have "substantially
delayed" the legislation.
IMMIGRATION -- WOMAN'S FAMILY ARRESTED
AFTER SHE SPEAKS OUT ON IMMIGRATION REFORM: Last
week, USA Today published an article in which Tam Tran, the
daughter of a political refugee from Vietnam, described
her family's struggle to gain legal status in the United States. Three days later,
immigration officers
arrived at her home before dawn and took her entire family into
custody. The arrests immediately raised eyebrows. Tran's
family was detained on a "years-old
deportation order" and had been "reporting to immigration
officials each year to obtain work permits." Rep. Zoe Lofgren
(D-CA), chairwoman of the House Immigration Subcommittee, "said she
believes the family was targeted because Tran
testified before Lofgren's panel earlier this spring" in
support of immigration reform. U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) officials said that
Tran's testimony before Congress "absolutely, unequivocally had
nothing
to do" with her family's arrest. But after being pressed on why a
family in regular contact with immigration officials would be forcibly
arrested in the middle of the night, Kelly Nantel, an ICE official,
could only offer the excuse that agents "did not understand the
complexity of the case." Lofgren posed the question, "Would [Tran] and
her family have been arrested if she hadn't
spoken out?"
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is still under
the microscope from the Kentucky press over his office's
involvement in smearing Graeme Frost. In an editorial entitled "McConnell
versus truth," The Courier-Journal writes, "It's clear what Mitch
McConnell knew and when he knew it. It's clear he deceived the public."
"Under pressure to help override President Bush's veto, at
least five of the eight House Democrats who voted initially against
expanding a popular children's health insurance program now
say they'll switch sides."
"The Pentagon is preparing to alert eight National Guard units that they should be ready
to go to Iraq or Afghanistan beginning late next summer." A
National Guard official explained, "You create holes when
you surge units forward, and someone has to fill them."
Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed the Iraq war yesterday,
stating, "it's absolutely
pointless to fight with a people." "It is absolutely
unacceptable to keep the occupation force in place in Iraq for
eternity," he added, emphasizing his support for a "date for
withdrawal."
The head of the Federal Communications Commission is pushing a plan
to repeal a rule "that forbids a company to own both a newspaper
and a television or radio station in the same city." The plan would
"be a big victory for some executives
of media conglomerates," including Rupert Murdoch.
"It is likely that Blackwater will not compete to keep the job"
of escorting U.S. diplomats outside the protected Green Zone after May,
according a U.S. official. "[T]here is a mutual feeling that the Sept.
16 shooting deaths mean the company
cannot continue in its current role."
"Alberto Gonzales was briefed extensively about a criminal
leak investigation despite the fact that he had reason to believe that
several individuals under investigation in the matter were
potential witnesses against him in separate Justice Department
inquiries."
And finally: On election night 2006, eight-year old Sarah Maria
Santorum wept on national television when her dad
lost his Senate race. Country singer Martina McBride on Monday released a song, For These Times, inspired in part by the
girl's tears. "I always tell my children that good
things come from bad things," Rick Santorum said in an interview
this week.
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An experimental malaria vaccine protected 65 percent of infants
who
received the treatment, "paving the way for a large clinical trial of
what could
be the first vaccine against the deadly disease."
MAINE:
Middle school becomes the first in Maine "to make a full range
of contraception available to students in grades 6 through 8."
KANSAS:
Anti-abortion county prosecutor files "dozens of felony and
misdemeanor charges yesterday against a Planned Parenthood clinic."
VIRGINIA: County
supervisors "cut off certain services to illegal immigrants
who are homeless, elderly or addicted to drugs."
THINK
PROGRESS: Days after claiming the America is less safe because of
the Iraq war, President Bush's counterterrorism chief suddenly resigns.
HUFF
POLITICS: Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales investigated
subordinates who were likely to testify against him.
WHITE
HOUSE WATCH: President Bush: I veto bills to "ensure that I am
relevant."
MATTHEW
YGLESIAS: President Bush moves the goal post on "World War III"
with Iran to "preventing Iran from having the knowledge necessary to
make a nuclear weapon."
"We will never allow Iraqi citizens to be killed in cold blood
by this company which doesn't care about the lives of Iraqis."
-- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, 9/19/07,
on Blackwater USA
VERSUS
"I will tell you, though, that a firm like Blackwater provides a
valuable service. They protect people's lives."
-- President Bush, 10/17/07
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