Flutterby™! : Eric Keroack at HHS

Charlene just mentioned the appointment of Eric Keroack as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs at the Health and Human Services Department. That means he's head of the Office of Family Planning. I had seen this a few days ago over on Elf Sternberg's LJ, but outrage overload made me pass it by. Despite my shrill tone of the past few days, y'all don't read this for the politicking. However, Charlene's encouragement made me write this.

Keroack is the "medical director" for a "pregnancy crisis counseling center". I can't find it right now, but a Washington Post article reports that:

"A Woman's Concern is persuaded that the crass commercialization and distribution of birth control is demeaning to women, degrading of human sexuality and adverse to human health and happiness," the group's Web site says.

(Presumably the web site was changed once this guy got political) So... uh... yeah. The guy in charge of administering over a quarter of a billion bucks to implement Title X:

The Title X program is the only Federal program devoted solely to the provision of family planning and reproductive health care. The program is designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them with priority given to low-income persons.

Thinks that easy access to birth control is demeaning to women. He also believes that:

In his presentation at the 10th Annual Abstinence Leadership Conference in Kansas City earlier this month, Dr. Eric Keroack, MD, FACOG explained that oxytocin is released during positive social interaction, massage, hugs, trust encounters, and sexual intercourse. It promotes bonding by reducing fear and anxiety in social settings, increasing trust and trustworthiness, reducing stress and pain, and decreasing social aggression, he said.

Which he then thinks implies that that:

"People who have misused their sexual faculty and become bonded to multiple persons will diminish the power of oxytocin to maintain a permanent bond with an individual."

So we only have a fixed amount of good feelings, and if we have too many good feelings we'll use them all up. And here I thought that "abstinence makes the heart grow fonder" was a joke.

Which makes sense. This administration put that utter fuckwit Donald Rumsfeld, who raped and pillaged the military budget to enrich his cronies and whose only successful military maneuver was finally falling on his sword, in charge of "defense", and now they're putting people who believe that contraception is eeeeevil in charge of family planning.

At this point I don't know what we can do to slow these fuckers down in their wanton rampage through rational behavior, but, damn, do something, say something, call your congressweasels and see if you can get them to say something, lest the war on sanity escalate even further. I mean, hell, apparently even Rush Limbaugh is repudiating this administration.

Obligatory link to Planned Parenthood.

(You know how to use Google, but if you want more links here's a place to start.)