President Bush to appoint abstinence-only activist to oversee reproductive services

Kate Raiford
Published: Thursday November 16, 2006

President Bush will appoint an anti-birth control advocate of abstinence to oversee funding for reproductive clinics next Monday, RAW STORY has learned.

Dr. Keroack is a Board Certified OB/GYN who is pro-life, opposes birth control, and favors abstinence-only education.

Title X, the funding he is set to control, supports reproductive health services and clinics. It is the only program of its kind. Its funding budget for fiscal year 2005 was $288 million. It supports about 4,600 clinics and serves 5 million people each year.

Almost 70 percent of Title X recipients have wages below the poverty line, according to the Office of Family Planning.

Keroack himself, along with many pro-choice and abstinence organizations, either was not available for comment by press time or declined to comment. However, fellow advocate and collaborator Dr. John R. Diggs, Jr., indicated to RAW STORY that he believes Keroack will allow his personal beliefs influence his decisions.

Diggs, who has known Keroack for four years and has worked with him on human sexuality and sanctity of life issues, added that anyone who said they wouldn’t let their personal beliefs influence their judgment would be lying.

Family planning advocates are critical of the decision.

"The appointment of anti-birth control, anti-sex education advocate Dr. Eric Keroack to oversee the nation’s family planning program," said Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards, "is striking proof that the Bush Administration remains dramatically out of step with the nation’s priorities."

She did not say what those priorities are, but a recent poll indicates that 53 percent of all adults are pro-choice.

However, Prolife.com publisher J.T. Finn disagrees. "I think it’s good to have a pro-life [person] in that position," Finn told Raw, "because we are dealing with health issues. When a woman becomes pregnant, we see it as two patients."

Keroack is the former medical director of A Woman’s Concern, which runs crisis pregnancy centers in Massachusetts that offer free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and pregnancy counseling.

Until it began receiving federal funding, A Woman’s Concern provided abstinence-only education and did not provide contraception. Until that time, it had been financed by the Gerard Health Foundation, a conservative funding source for anti-choice groups such as Focus on the Family. A Woman's Concern also oversees abstinence-only education in scores of Massachusetts schools.

Dr. Keroack has consistently opposed contraception, in sometimes what many would consider extremist forms. Planned Parenthood reports that, as a member of the Medical Advisory Council for the Abstinence Clearing House and Federal Expert Panel, Keroack defined the guidelines for grants from the Community-Based Abstinence Education Program. His requirements included that there be no discussion of contraception, or even sexually transmitted infections.

Keroack’s research serves to reinforce his political positions. In 2002, Crisis Magazine reported that Keroack had completed a study correlating the use of ultrasounds with the decision not to have an abortion. Without an ultrasound, about 60 percent of the women in the study had an abortion. The number fell to 24 percent after seeing the ultrasound.

He calculated that the cost of persuading a woman not to have an abortion is $336, according to an article published by National Right to Life Committee.

After hearing this, “Congressman Cliff Sterns, R-Fl, and others have proposed a new bill, which would authorize the Department of Health and Human Services to give $3 million to centers to purchase ultrasound machines,” the article reported.

Keroack spoke this summer at the 10th annual Abstinence Leadership Conference. There, he asserted that part of relationship success is based on a chemical called oxytocin, which he has studied with Diggs. Oxytocin is normally released during childbirth and breast-feeding.

Keroack's theory is that when a one-night-stand or cohabitation ends and the bonding is severed, oxytocin levels drop. “Many in this increased state of emotional pain and lower oxytocin seek sex as a substitute for love, which inevitably leads to another failed relationship, and, so, the cycle continues,” Keroack wrote.

The cure? Abstinence, and time to heal.

“If you have multiple partners, then the spouse is no longer significant,” Diggs said.

Diggs said that repeated childbirth doesn’t have the same effect because the biochemical effects are not the only factors at work. He explained that he derived his theory from observation and reading, saying, “I have not read or found any biochemical explanation.”